3019PSY Mid Tri

cognitive psychology

cognitive psychology

the study of mental processes and the mind

neuropsychology

the study of how brain structures and processes influence behaviour

cognitive neuropsychology

the study of the mind and the effects of brain injury of cognitive function

developmental cognitive neuropsychology

the study of the mind and the effects of brain injury on the development cognitive function

cognitive neuroscience

the study of neural systems that carry out cognitive function

cognitive neuropsychiatry

the application of cognitive neuroscience to understanding disorders of higher-order cognition

orthodox approach

uses case studies to link patient performance to normal models of cognitive function; emphasises the mind

functional localisation approach

assesses groups of patients to identify lesion location and its impact on performance; emphasises the mind

P300

an event-related potential that occurs 300 milliseconds after someone is presented with stimuli

big data

the analysis of upwards of 100 participants

neuroplasticity

the ability of the brain to reorganise neural connections following brain injury to minimise cognitive loss

single case study

a single patient is assessed across multiple tasks

case study series

a single/ multiple patient is assessed across multiple tasks and time points

multiple case studies

several single patient case studies of a similar area are collated

associations

similar patterns of imairments are present across multiple tasks

dissociations

differential patterns of performance are present across tasks

double dissociations

two patients have exact opposite patterns of task performance

fractation assumption

brain injury results in selective impairments (rather than global) of cognitive processes and correspondence between the brain and the mind

modularity assumption

cognitive processes operate via a series of independent or functional modules

transparency/ subtractivity assumption

by assessing patterns of intact and impaired performance in patients, we can gain insight into the type of functions that are impaired

universality assumption

all cognitive architectures are the same initially

functional modules

a cognitive set of mental processes; includes knowledge and processing modules

knowledge modules

store facts, items, and categorical information

processing modules

an independent processor of the information stored in the knowledge modules

anatomical modularity

specific brain regions

neurochemical modularity

specific neurotransmitter pathways

modularity hypothesis

the hypothesis which proposes that the existence of double dissociations indicates our mental processes are driven by many semi-independent cognitive systems which can be individually impaired

colour blindness

a genetic deficit resulting in an abnormal photoreceptive system

cerebral achromatopsia

a genetic inability to percieve colours associated with damage to the V8 and V4 areas

colour agnosia

a central and general loss of knowledge about colour

colour anomia

an inability to produce colour names

akinetopsia

a selective loss of motor perception

agnosia

a failure of knowledge and recognition

visual agnosia

a deficit in object perception or recognition with intact shape, colour, and motion processing

apperceptive agnosia

agnosia occuring at the initial stages of object recognition

associative agnosia

agnosia occurring at later stages of object recognition

category specific agnosia

object recognition deficits specific to certain categories of objects

pre-senile dementia

a general loss of semantic access regardless of the modality

utilisation behaviour disorder

where a person knows the use of an object but uses it in innapropriate settings

prosopagnosia

an inability to recognise familiar faces

face inversion effect

we are much slower at recognising faces (rather than objects) when they are inverted

thatcher illusion

it is easier to recognise inconsistencies in faces when they are presented upright rather than inverted

compsite face effect

it is harder to recognise that a face is made up of composite parts when it is inverted rather than upright

developmental prosopagnosia

people with congenital prosopagnosia and who sustained a brain injury in utero/ in early childhood resulting in prosopagnosia

congenital prosopagnosia

prosopagnosia acquired from birth in the absence of brain injury

anomia

a deficit in producing names

metamorphopsia

a perceptual visual deficit that causes objects or faces to appear distorted

super recognisers

individuals that rarely forget anyones face

inferior occipital gyri

associated with early perceptual features

superior temporal sulcus

associated with the changeable aspects of a persons face (gaze, expression, lips)

lateral fusiform gyrus

associated with invariant aspects of the persons unique identity

Gerstmann Syndrome

associated with difficulties in maths, finger agnosia, left-right orientation, hearing, writing, and saying words

repetition priming paradigm

priming that occurs due to having been shown an object previously, regardless of perspective but contingent on modality

semantic priming

priming that occurs due to a semantic relation between priming and target words/ objects (eg bread and butter)