Cognitive Psychology And Human Cognition - 1499 Words

Cognitive neuroscience categorised as one of the many approaches to human cognition, focuses on the study of both the brain and behaviour in collaboration. Evidence from such approaches can be used to understand in depth, the mental processes forming cognition. Consequently, this contributes to our understanding of the mind. Despite vast development in this field, various challenges are posed as no single method can answer every question raised due to its limitations and therefore must be combined in order to produce a more reliable understanding. Cognitive psychology was the first to make progress in the understanding of these areas and accordingly it can be noticed that the tasks used by cognitive neuroscientists for brain-imaging†¦show more content†¦Brain-imaging techniques used by cognitive neuroscientist’s aid research into such field by analysing the different parts of the brain that become active when a certain task is performed. The main technique that can be discussed in the role of trying to understand the mind is Functional magnetic resonance imaging. This technique uses an MRI machine to measure brain activity by looking at changes in one’s blood flow. Stern et al, 1996 carried out research into the parts of the brain crucial for encoding and storage of information in the long-term memory store. Using fMRI, participants were monitored while performing a novel picture encoding task. Evidence was provided to show that the encoding of these pictures depends on how the ventral cortical regions and the hippocampal region interact. This highlights a link between the two which therefore creates a valid contribution to our understanding of the mind as it identifies the parts of the brain crucial for engaging in essential mental processes. On the other hand, although this link can be identified, the method used by cognitive neuroscientists cannot explain exactly how the hippocampal formation is crucial in the encoding of information i n long-term memory meaning that it cannot be explained as to why it is needed and what exactly would happen to the encoding process if damage to this formation was to occur. In terms of the technique itself, low temporal resolution and high expense can be noted as another