ABSTRACT
A popular view of the study of human psychology is to posit a link between ‘brain’, ‘behavior’ and ‘cognition’. In this model, explanations of human psychology can be couched in behavioral terms, i.e. the outward manifestation of a person’s psychology. Equally, descriptions can be couched in terms of the underlying cognition that provides the substrates for the observed behavior. Finally, theories can also be posited in terms of the neural substrates of behavior. Of the tripos of ‘behavior’, ‘cognition’ and ‘biology’, only the first may be directly measured. This tripos can best be understood by way of a real example, as would occur with an individual’s performance on a psychological test. In this scenario, performance on a popular neuropsychological assessment measure, such as a spatial working memory task, can be described: (1), behaviorally (i.e what the subject was observed to do); (2) cognitively (the cognitive skills needed to perform the task); or (3) biologically (a description of the brain areas required to perform the task). Most scientists would agree that the domains of behavior and cognition are properly the domain of the psychologist, though they would be less sure that ‘brains’ are their natural territory. Nevertheless, the prefix ‘neuro’ serves to remind us that for most students of human behavior (though not, perhaps, members of the lay public) all psychological events have physiological correlates. The attachment of the prefix ‘neuro’ to ‘psychology’ also suggests that at least some psychologists lay claim not just to the ‘mind’ but also to its physical seat, the brain. Both authors of this chapter have engaged in this linkage between structure and function, as we have taken the view that a complete explanation of behavior requires reference to the organ that houses cognition. However, the jump from the ‘psychological’ to the physiological requires that a number of important methodological and theoretical hurdles be addressed, and we begin by considering a number of these issues in detail.
