Download Cognitive neuroscience

TOPIC 2:
Approaches to
Cognitive Psychology
APPROACHES….
 Cognitive
scientist
have
dif ficulties
in studying
cognitive
process in
human
being because… mental
process cannot be seen, unlike overt behavior.
 Scientists need a general framework to guide them, a set of
assumptions that tells them where to start, what to look for,
what to be aware of.
 Thus, various
approaches
to study human cognitive
process were developed:
 Experimental cognitive psychology
 Cognitive science
 Cognitive neuropsychology
 Cognitive neuroscience
Experimental cognitive psychology
 Experimental cognitive psychology – foundation for
approaches in cognitive psychology
all
the
◦ Involves
 Conducting experiments
on
normal individuals under laboratory
studies.
 Scientific method – system of established
principles and processes of scientific
inquiry
◦ Identifying a problem
◦ Formulating hypotheses
◦ Collecting data
◦ Analyzing the data
◦ Disseminating findings
Experimental cognitive psychology

Experimental
usually….








◦
Cognitive
Psychologist would
Identifying a problem (define a question of study).
Gather information and resources
Formulate hypotheses
Conduct scientific experiment
Collect data
Analyze data
Interpret data
Make conclusion (in order to build a starting point for
new hypothesis)
Results (findings) will be disseminate
Experimental cognitive psychology
 Sample  normal individuals under
laboratory
 Controlled environment – to understand
cognition/thinking process better
human
conditions
Limitation of Experimental cognitive psychology
 People tend to behave differently when they are in
the
lab situation (when involved in
experiment) 
resulting in
inaccurate findings because it does not
represent the true process of human cognition.
 Normally setting or design of the experiments is carried
out in
advance according to
scientists
needs/
requirement  little
emphasize
on respondent’s
response.
 Measurement
on
the speed and
accuracy
of
performance provide
only indirect
evidence about
the internal process involved in cognition.
 Experimenter have
the tendency to
ignore
the
differences in respondents background (IQ,SES etc) 
could affect the experiment result.
COGNITIVE SCIENCE
◦ Focus on the relationship between artificial
intelligence and Cognitive Psychology  by developing
computational models in order to understand human
cognitions.
 Artificial Intelligence is the study of human intelligence
such that it can be replicated artificially. i.e. AI:-
 Think and act like humans
 Think and act rationally
• Systems that think like humans (focus on
reasoning and human framework)
• Systems that think rationally (focus on reasoning
and a general concept of intelligence)
• Systems that act like humans (focus on behavior
and human framework)
• Systems that act rationally (focus on behavior
and a general concept of intelligence)
…COGNITIVE SCIENCE
 A good computational model can: ◦ show us how a given theory can be specified in
detail  allow us to predict behavior in new
situations.
◦ Help to stimulate better specification of cognitive
theories and generates new predictions.
3
◦
◦
◦
main types of computational
Semantic networks
Production system
Connectionist network
models: -
…LIMITATION OF COGNITIVE
SCIENCE
 Normally computational models are used for/as prop
for a theory, rarely used to make prediction 
because often they have no real predictive function.
 Connectionist models  claim to have neuro
plausability, do not really resemble the human
brain.
 Most computational model has been design to
stimulate human performance on single task.
COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
 Cognitive neuropsychology is a branch of cognitive
psychology that aims to understand how the structure
and function of the brain relates to specific
psychological processes.
 Emphasize on  study the cognitive effects of brain
injury or neurological
illness  by inferring to
models of normal cognitive functioning (in order to
understand the normal human cognition).
 Evidence is based on case studies of individual brain
damaged patients who show deficits in brain areas
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…..OTAK
 Setiap bahagian otak sangat penting dalam mempengaruhi
perkembangan bayi  berintegrasi juga dengan integrasi dengan
emosi dan tingkahlaku sosial.
Otak Tengah: Limbic System
mengawal emosi, ingatan,
motivasi, t/l agrasif, kawal
suhu badan, lapar, aktiviti
sistem saraf, rembesan
hormon, dan pusat
kepuasan
Otak Luar: Cortex & neocortex
berlipat-lipat, disinilah letaknya
‘intelligence’ (tempat berfikir),
kawasan yang mengawal
penglihatan, pendengaran,
rekacipta, percakapan dan
pemikiran. Ia terbahagi kepada
bahagian-bahagian (lobes)
Pangkal Otak: Brain stem
Kawal proses-proses hidup,spt
bernafas, pergerakan jantung,
proses ginjal, tidur, arousal,
attention & keseimbangan badan
(balance/movement), dll.
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COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
 Cognitive neuropsychologist assume that
cognitive
system
consists of
several modules or cognitive
processors within the brain.
◦ i.e. the
cognitive
processors
involved
in
understanding
speech
is different from actual
talking.
 So, some brain damage patients are good
at
language comprehension but poor at talking (or
vice-versa) .
 From these studies researchers infer that different areas
of the brain are highly specialized.

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COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
 Cognitive neuropsychology also uses many of the same
techniques and technologies from the wider science of
neuropsychology and fields such as cognitive
neuroscience (neuroimaging – e.g. PET scan/MRI/CT
scan; electrophysiology & neuropsychology test) to
measure either brain function or psychological
performance

LIMITATIONS: COGNITIVE
NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
 Assume that the cognitive
performance of a brain
damage patients provide direct evidence of the impact
of brain damage (of previously normal cognitive
system).
 The whole cognitive neuropsychological approach is
very complex 
because
every individual are
different (in age, size, SES, educational background) ,
but they have similar kind of brain damage. So????
 The study of brain damage patients
can lead to
underestimates
of
brain
areas
involved
in
performing any given cognitive functioning
COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
 Cognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned
with the scientific study of biological component
underlying cognition
 with specific focus on the
neural component of mental processes.
 It addresses the questions of how psychological/ cognitive
functions are produced by the brain  focused on
uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive
processes.
◦ Includes studying about perception, attention, motor
control,
language, learning, memory,
spatial
and
social cognition
COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
 Cognitive neuroscience is a branch of both
psychology and neuroscience, overlapping with
disciplines such as biology,
physiology,
physiological psychology, cognitive psychology
and neuropsychology.
 Therefore, the Cognitive neuroscientists comes
from various backgrounds, such as…..
◦ cognitive
neuroscience,
neurobiology,
Bioengineering,
◦ Psychiatry, neurology, physics, computer science,
linguistics, philosophy and mathematics.
COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
 Methods employed in cognitive neuroscience include
experimental paradigms from psychophysics
and
cognitive
psychology, functional
neuroimaging,
electrophysiology, cognitive genomics and behavioral
genetics.
 Scientist
tried to understand
the relationship
between the brain and mind  from various aspects.
◦ Studies of the human brain are done
scientifically
 in controlled environment (lab)
◦ Studies of patients with cognitive deficits due to brain
lesions constitute an important aspect of cognitive
neuroscience
…LIMITATION 0F COGNITIVE
NEUROSCIENCE
Relating to the
validity of the
data
collected (results from the study).
Can the result
be generalized to other
situation  since
each
individual
(respondents)
participated in the study
have significant individual differences???
SCL 2: GROUP WORK
 Describe and discuss the different approaches
in studying Cognitive Psychology:
 Experimental cognitive psychology
 Cognitive science
 Cognitive neuropsychology
 Cognitive neuroscience
 Discussion must include core idea, strengths
and limitations of each approaches.