Theoretical models used to explain cognitive functioning can be categorized based on the fundamental approach that the researchers using them adopt. Some theories apply knowledge about the brain’s structure to explain a decline in mental functioning. The theories using this approach, called a structure-function relationship, compare the performance of patients with known damage, either localized to specific regions of the brain or diffusely distributed, with the performance of people with brain damage of unknown or uncertain location (which may or may not be a result of alcohol abuse). Theories based on another approach, referred to here as a “process-oriented” approach, examine the underlying nature of the observed cognitive functional decline with little or no direct reference to brain structure. The process-oriented approach uses models that psychologists have constructed to describe memory and other mental processes.
