Rationale
Biological psychology (biopsychology) looks at psychological processes from a biological perspective, dealing with issues such as behaviour genetics, endocrinology and physiological psychology. Following on from the introductory module, this course will look in greater detail at the biological bases of behaviour, including anatomical structures and hormonal influences on cognition and behaviour.
Cognitive psychology studies how information is processed by the brain and sense organs. It is concerned with issues of how people perceive, understand, make decisions about and remember information. Cognitive psychology now influences most other areas of psychology such as developmental, social, and abnormal psychology. There are several approaches to understanding cognitive processing including cognitive neuroscience, cognitive neuropsychology and cognitive science. These approaches are unified by an information-processing framework, which is based on an analogy between the mind and the computer.
This module expands on issues raised during Foundations in Biological-Cognitive Psychology by reviewing the methods, theories and approaches to studying the main topic areas within biological and cognitive psychology, such as the brain and central nervous system, hormones and behaviour, sensory processing, perception, attention, recognition memory, and language.