MCAT-PSYCHOLOGY SUMMARY NOTES

MCAT Psychology Lecture 4: Thought and Emotion - patient’s physical and emotional lives are inseparable - Drs are required to constantly examine a Pt’s internal state/external environment 4.1 Cognition: Cognition – internal mental activities (ex: analyzing info, forming ideas, problem solving) - refers to higher level processing (language, logical reasoning) - an internal process that influences external behavior Perception – refers to our interpretation of a sensory input Information-processing models – focus on input-output functions - the brain receives a stimulus input  processes it  determines an output function (reaction) Cerebral Cortex – controls information processing; contains 4 lobes - Frontal Lobe – motor control, decision making, long-term memory storage - Parietal Lobe – somatosensory cortex - Occipital Lobe – Visual information - Temporal Lobe – Auditory/olfactory information fMRI – measures brain activity by measuring blood flow to a certain region, as more active regions will require more blood flow for the increased oxygen consumption from more activity Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development: - integrated theory of child development (both nature and nurture mixed) - children develop cognitively by experimenting with their environment - resulting experiences are grouped into pre-existing Schemas, through a process called Assimilation (grouping of experiences) - if the new information does not fit into a pre-existing Schema (or group), the child’s schemas are reorganized to fit the new information (= accommodation)