4đCognitive-Approaches PAPER2 Flashcards
Cognitive Assumptions
- It is necessary to look at internal mental processes to understand behaviour
- All behaviour is result of information processing
- By describing thinking as information processing, cognitive psychologists can make a comparison between minds and computers
- Just as computers behaviour is determined by what information it is given and how it has been programmed, a persons behaviour is determined by what information
a. information available in environment
b. ways they have learned to manipulate (process) information
c. the capacities for information processing
Schema
-âpackageâ of beliefs and expectations on a topic, based on prior experience
-give us âshortcutsâ in world
-apply new information onto schemas to know how to behave
Effect of Schemas
-can cause us to exclude any information which does not conform with pre existing, established ideas
-may cause us to rely on steryoptypes
-can lead to faulty conclusion and unhelpful behaviour
eg. a schema for injections may be that they are unpleasant and scary, as a results a person may have a panic attack before vaccination
Bartletts War of the Ghosts
-Bartlett found the participants recall distorted the content and style of original story
-participants shortened story and phrases, often changed words to more familiar eg. boat instead of canoe
-found other errors such as flattening (failure to recall unfamiliar details) and sharpening (elaboration of certain details)
Criticism of Bartletts work
-his approach lacked objectivity, well controlled experiments are only way to produce objective data
-his methods too casual, simply asked group of participants to recall story at various intervals, without special conditions
-possible other factors affected participants performance, such as conditions around them, or distortions were simply guesses by participants trying to make recall seem complete rather than genuine distortions in recall
Strength of Bartletts work
-could be argued his work is more ecologically valid than studies that involve recall of syllables or lists of words
-recent years there has been in trade in kind of researched conducted by Bartlett, looking more at âeveryday memoryâ
Computer Model
-compare brain to computer system
-mind functions in similar way to how computers process information
-computer takes in data through keyboard, brain gathers information from senses such as sight
-after brain receives this input, it processes the information, just like a computers processor analyses data
-the mind then organises, stores and retrieved memories in ways comparable to how a computer saves and accesses files
-finally brain responds to this processed information by producing actions, like a computer outputs results through screen
INPUTâ-> PROCESSINGâ->OUTPUT
Strength Computer Models
-psychologists can better understand the way our brains break down tasks and manage information
-helps them visualise mental processes like memory and dedication making in clear, systematic way, highlighting how organised and efficient brain can be, similar to how computer operates
Weakness Computer Models
-computers â humans
-uses computer models to explain human behaviour through terms such as âencodingâ distinctly from field of computing
- important distinctions between computers and human mind, eg. computers do not make mistake or forget information
-computer models not accurate representation of human mind, should be treated with caution
Information Processing Models
-describe thinking as series of steps or stages
-brain revived input from environment such as noticing something or hearing a sound
- information passes through different stages of attention, perception and memory as brain analyses and interprets it
-once brain processes input, it may decide on response, which could involve making descision, solving problem or action
-final step is output, where brain processes reaction, like moving or speaking
-this model views brain as efficient processor, handling information in an ordered logical way, and helps psychologists understand how we manage tasks like problem solving or decision making in real time
INPUTâ>PROCESSINGâ->OUTPUT
INPUT- from environment via sense
PROCESSING- info is encoded and processed using schema
OUTPUT- observable behaviour
Strength Cognitive (application to treatment ofâŚ)
-application to treatment of psychological disorders
-used to explain how faulty thinking processes can cause psychological disorders such as depression
-led to development of successful treatments for psychological disorders such as CBT
-improved individuals lives, greater number people happier lives, positive
Cognitive Strength (methodology and its use ofâŚ)
-methodology and its use of scientific and empirical methods
-uses scientific and empirical methods to collect and evaluate evidence
-conclusions about mind are based on more then common sense and introspection instead looking at reliable and replicable empirical evidence
-conclusions far more valid representation of human mind due to way data collected
Cognitive Weakness (doubt the cognitive approach truly understood what it is to be human asâŚ)
-there is some doubt the cognitive approach has truly understood what it is to be human as it ignores emotions and motivation
-can tell us how different cognitive processes take place, fails to explain why they do
-over dependence on computer models may explain why role of emotion and motivation is largely ignored
-matters as human mind not like a computer and emotion and motivation clearly important aspects human behaviour
Cognitive Weakness ( often lack __________ validityâŚ..)
-although methodology generally considered strong, not without concerns
-studies often lack ecological validity ( being typical of the mental processes we use in our everyday day life)
- many studies tend to use fasts that have little in common with participants everyday experiences
- for example experiments in memory use artificial test materials that are relatively meaningless in everyday life eg. random word lists
-therefore much research said to lack ecological validity as fails to reflex real life behaviour
