AO1 - Emergence of Cognitive Neuroscience

• Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of brain/neurological structures, mechanisms, processes, chemistry that are responsible for cognitive/mental/thinking processes
• This is a theory that has recently emerged as technology has advanced, enabling psychologists to use a number of brain imaging techniques such as fMRI and PET scans to investigate how brain activity might underpin mental processes - this is achieved by comparing people with a disorder to those without a disorder to identify the physical basis for cognitive processes in the brain
• Cognitive neuroscience believes that computer models are important in understanding how individuals think
• For example, Tulving's research - the use of PET scans whilst participants completed tasks requiring the use of their episodic and semantic memory lead Tulving to discover that different parts of the LTM are located in different areas of the brain

  • Procedural - Cerebellum and Motor Cortex
  • Semantic - Temporal Lobe
  • Episodic - Hippocampus