The Importance Of Cognitive Psychology

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It understands how cognitive activities functions by understanding the influence of brain damage on human behavior. It upholds the tenets that brain lesions signify a deeper understanding of human behavior. It seeks information about cognitive functioning by looking at the behavior of brain damaged patients. The approach engages in this action because it believes that any brain damage will effect a change in human behavior and from this change, inferences can be made bout human cognitive activity. Thus, a detailed study extensively carried out on a brain damaged patient allows for extensive and innovative research in cognitive Psychology. According to a known author in the field, McCloskey believed that you can only understand how a system …show more content…

The approach uses multidimensional techniques to measure brainwave activity in humans especially when they are busy with the execution of a cognitive task. Earlier origins of this approach can be seen when Brodmann created what he called a “cytoarchitectonic” graph of the brain that basically looked at the molecular structures of cells present within brain tissues in a human’s cognitive mind. Areas highlighted by Brodmann have been verified to actually resemble active individual aspects of the brain. The field of neuroscience has established a route through which certain aspect or pathways of brain connections can easily be seen with the use of well-designed techniques sometimes referred to as brain scans or x-rays to monitor brainwave functions during cognitive activities. Popular methods used in this process are Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). MRI exploits certain magnetic fields to look at how the brain works. It compares individual responses against the forces present in the magnetic field. It can be used extensively across situations and periodic time differences. PET on the other hand uses radioactive technology to know more about the localization of functions in the brain. It injects radioactive substances into the blood stream of the test subject of the individual, these substance give off a chemical by-product that reveals the positions of positrons during a cognitive activity. By inspecting where these positrons are, cognitive activity can easily be monitored and decoded and inferences can be drawn from the observation. Other techniques used in the field include Magnetoencephalography and Transcranial Magnetic stimulation (TMS). Magnetoencephalography simply improves the spatial resolution of MRI as it carries out the same function. TMS simply simulates the creation of a lesion in the brain or temporarily disrupts brain activities

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