Approaches

• what is an example of a PET scan?

  Broca's area - frontal lobes involved in speech
• what does PET scan mean?

  positron emission tomography
• what does fMRI stand for?

  functional magnetic resonance imaging
• how is it carried out?

  by mapping the brain areas when involved in certain cognitive functions
• what is the aim of cognitive neuroscience?

  to show what biological structures are being used during processing
• what happens in cognitive neuroscience?

  scientific study of brain structures that underpin mental processes
• what is a limitation of the cognitive approach?

  it underestimates the complexities of the human mind - computers process every piece of info / humans do not
• what is a strength of the cognitive approach?

  It allows treatments to be developed - e.g depression is caused by too many negative schemas - can treat patients with therapies like CBT
• what does the term disequilibrium mean?


  sense of discomfort when schemas are unable to deal with current experiences
• what does the term assimilation mean?

  adding 'similar' info to an existing schema
• what does the term accommodation mean?

  building a new schema to 'house' new different knowledge
• what is a schema?

  cognitive framework that are used to organise knowledge and experience of the world into 'templates
• how are these presented?

  in pictorial form with arrows to indicate cause and effect of the stages of mental stages
• give 2 examples of theoretical models

  MSM and WMM
• what is an inference?

  A conclusion reached based on evidence
• how do we study these?

  through inferring
• why can't mental processes be studied directy?

  they're 'private' operations of the mind like -- memory, perception and thinking (we can't see them)
• what are the 4 beliefs of the cognitive approach?

  1. make inferences about behaviour we cannot see

  2. theoretical & computer models can be used

  3. we develop through schemas

  4. we must be scientific in the research we conduct
• What does cognitive mean?

  thinking/mind. -- brain = thinking
• what is a weakness of the biological approach?

  It is reductionist (a large concept broken into small ones)

  -- ignores other (traumatic) factors and fails to consider influences
• what is a strength of the biological approach?

  scientific methods ( controlled lab setting) -- microscopes give more valid results
• name an example of neurotransmitters


  seretonin
• what can a nerve impulse lead to in the brain ?

  excitatory or inhibitory action
• where does action take place which can influence behaviours?

  synaptic gap
• What does brain scanning allow us to see?


  which part of the brain is involved which behaviour
• what is a phenotype?

  interaction between environment and genes
• what does hereditary information mean?

  info passed down from biological parents
• what is a genotype?


  the collection of all genes within cells ( carry instructions for specific behaviours)
• what are genes?

  genes carry instructions for a particular characteristic
• what is meant by environment of evolutionary adaption?

  Period of time where changes occur, specific to species

  
  

  SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST and SEXUAL SELECTION
• what are the 4 key assumptions of the biological approach?

  1. Evolution plays a role in explaining behaviours

  2. genetic basis when explaining behaviours

  3. Anatomy of brain influences behaviour

  4. behaviour can be impacted by chemical messengers (neurotransmitters)
• what is a strength of the social learning theory?

  It uses scientific methods methods — bandura used controlled observation
• what were the results of the experiment?

  when given their own bobo doll , children in C1 were most aggressive, followed by those in C3 and C2 were least aggressive.
• what are the 3 conditions of this experiment?

  1. child see adult getting praise for behaviour

  2. child sees adult being punished for behaviour

  3. control group- don't see anything happen to adult
• How did they do this?

  adults with bobo doll ( children watch) - beat doll for ten mins to see what children do
• what age did bandura study?

  3-5 years old
• Who studied social learning theory?

  Bandura - Bobo dolls
• What does motivation mean?

  a person will be motivated to imitate a behaviour if the role model has been rewarded
• what does reproduction mean?

  A person attempts to recreate a behaviour
• what does retention mean?

  a person must remember what they've seen so they can imitate them in the future