Cognitive psychology is concerned with the internal processes involved in making sense of the environment and deciding what action may be appropriate. These processes include attention, perception, learning and reasoning, (Eysenck and Keane, 2010).There are a number of approaches which can be used within this field, however for the purposes of the essay only two will be compared; cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology. The aims of cognitive neuroscientists are often similar to those of cognitive psychologists; they are both interested in the brain and cognition, (Medin and Ross, 1996). Nevertheless, it could be argued that there are also some fundamental differences between the two approaches, especially in the research methods employed. This assignment will explain and evaluate the models in comparison to one another.
Historically, cognitive psychology was unified by an approach based on an resemblance between the mind and a computer, (Eysenck and Keane, 2010). Cognitive neuroscientists argue convincingly that we need to study the brain while people engage in cognitive tasks. Clearly, the internal processes involved in human cognition occur in the brain, and several sophisticated ways of studying the brain in action, including various imaging techniques, now exist, (Sternberg and Wagner, 1999, page 34).Neuroscience studies how the activity of the brain is correlated with cognitive operations, (Eysenck and Keane, 2010). On the other hand, cognitive neuropsychologists believe that we can draw general conclusions about the way in which the intact mind and brain work from mainly studying the behaviour of neurological patients rather than their physiology, (McCarthy and Warrington, 1990).
Inevitably, there are ethical limit...
... middle of paper ...
...ck, M., Keane T. (2010). Cognitive Psychology A Student's Handbook. Hove: Psychology Press.
Fodor,J. (1983). The modularity of the mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Medin, D., Ross, B. (1996), Cognitive Psychology. 2nd Edition. Orlando: Harcourt
Brace & Company.
McCarthy, R., Warrington, E. (1990), Cognitive Neuropsychology: A Clinical Introduction. San Diego: Academic Press Ltd.
Payne, D., Wenger, M. (1982). Cognitive Psychology. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company
Ruff, R. (2003) A friendly critique of neuropsychology: facing the challenges of our future, Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. 18( 8), 847-864.
Sternberg, R., Wagner, R. (1999), Readings in Cognitive Psychology. Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Company.
Wessinger, C.M., Clapham, E. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: An Overview , Encylopedia of Neuroscience. 12(4) 1117-1122.
Dr. Correia has done many internships and fellowships in multiple places. Before acquiring his Doctorate, Dr. Correia had an internship at the Malcolm Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida for a year. After getting his Ph.D. he had two fellowships at the Brown Medical School dealing with Neuropsychology and Dementia Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. Dr. Correia has been awarded countless times including his most recent Outstanding Teaching Award in Psychology at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University.
One of the major differences between humans and animals is our ability to reason and differentiate our actions from our instincts (Barrett, 2011, p. 3). Justin Barrett further explains this distinction in the first chapter of his book, Cognitive Science Religion and Theology. He explains that cognitive science recognizes the uniqueness of the human mind and focuses on explaining the thinking processes that take place(Barrett, 2011, p. 5). This may seem similar to what the field of neuroscience aims to do but, cognitive science is not as interested with the biological functions of the brain. Instead of looking at physical structures Barrett writes, that cognitive science focuses on broader processes such as perception, attention, memory, reasoning and learning (Barrett, 2011, p. 7). All of these processes interact with each other to create the big questions asked in cognitive science. Some of these big underlying questions of cognitive science are explored in this first chapter, questions such as “What is innate?” or “How are mind and bodies
Kaplan, H. I., Sadock, B. J., & Grebb, J. A. (1994). Synopsis of psychiatry: behavioral sciences,
Rabin et al. [2005] versus “most common” in Camara et al. [2000]), but it seems that neuropsychologists
Kandel, E. R., J. H. Schwarz, and T. M. Jessel. Principles of Neural Science. 3rd ed. Elsevier. New York: 1991.
Davis, S. F., & Palladino, J. J. (2003). Psychology. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Levine, B. & Stuss, D. (2002). Adult clinical neuropsychology: lessons from studies of the frontal lobes. Annual Reviews Psychology, 401-433.
Whilst evaluating the cognitive approach to psychology there are many strengths such as that the cognitive approach takes an understanding of the influence from mental processes on one’s behaviour, focusing on an individual’s thinking patterns and their perception. This approach also relates to many known functions and operations that the human body performs such as memory and problem solving.
Several acheivements occurred in the development of cognitive psychology. The study of neuroscience brings us to what we know about cognition today. Cognitive psychology came from the criticisms and flaws of behaviorism. The focus of behaviorism is on observable behaviors, although cognitive psychology became a means to studying mental processes. Cognitive psychology can answer the questions behaviorism could not provide. Behavioral observations are key factors in cognitive psychology, and help with interpreting mental processes and behaviors. Through studying mental processes cognitive psychologists’ expanded psychology through and beyond observations. Behavioral observations helps researchers test cognitive theories. Behaviorists study observable behavior and cognitive psychologists study the mental processes. When studying these processes, researchers attempt to explain how unobservable processes interact with the observable behaviors and helping cognitive psychologists test their theories in
Sternberg, R. J. (1999). Cognitive psychology (2nd ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers
Smith, E. E. and Kosslyn, S. M. (2009). Cognitive psychology: Mind and brain. New Jersey: Pearson Education
Keil, F. C. and Wilson, R. A. (1999) The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences. Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England: The MIT Press
Boyd, D., Wood, E.G., Wood, S.E. (2014, 2011, 2008). Mastering the world of psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 128-129, 329-330, 335-340. Print.
Throughout the ages, humans have had an inherent interest in studying the complex area of human behaviour, even before psychology was established as a science. Because the study of behaviour is so broad and multifaceted, its scientific study poses particular challenges. Therefore, it can be beneficial to approach the scientific study of human behaviour from the perspective of cognitive psychology. This is the study of cognition, the mental processes that underlie human behaviour (Ling & Cattling, 2012).
Balota, D. A. and Marsh, E.J. Cognitive psychology. Key Readings. (2004) Hove: East Sussex: Psychology Press.