Approaches: The Cognitive Approach Flashcards
1
Q
What Is The Cognitive Approach?
A
- The term cognitive means mental processes.
- This approach is focused on how our mental processes such as thoughts, perceptions and attention impact behaviour.
2
Q
What Is Internal Mental Processes?
A
- Private operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response.
3
Q
What Is Schema?
A
- A mental framework of beliefs and explanations that influence cognitive processing.
- They are developed from experience.
4
Q
What Is Inferences?
A
- The process whereby cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour.
5
Q
What Is Cognitive Neuroscience?
A
- The scientific study of biological structures that underpin cognitive processes.
6
Q
Cognitive Approach Assumptions.
A
- The mind actively processes information from our senses.
- Argues that internal mental processes can and should be studied scientifically.
- Mediational processes occur between stimulus and response.
- Human are information processors and therefore resemble computers - information is transformed, stored and retrieved from memory.
7
Q
The Cognitive Approach Overview
A
- Suggests that internal mental processes can and should be studied in a scientific way.
- Can be done through inferences ( any information that you assume but don’t have knowledge - based on evidence you have) based on behaviour.
- Investigates such as memory, perception and thinking which were neglected by learning theories.
8
Q
The Role Of Schema.
A
- Cognitive frame work that helps and interpret information in the brain.
- Learned through experiences and helps individuals respond to objects appropriately.
- Cognitive processes can be influenced by a person’s expectations or beliefs.
- Babies have simple motor schema for innate behaviour e.g grasping/sucking. Schemas become more developed and detailed as you age.
- Schemas allow us to take shortcuts when interpreting large amounts of information. However can lead to perceptual errors and stereotypes as assumptions are made with incomplete information leading to schema distorting interpretations of sensory information
9
Q
Using Models To Understand Cognitive Processing.
A
- Human brain is similar to computer processes.
- Theoretical models, such as processing approach suggests that information flows through a sequence of stages that include input, storage, and retrieval e.g multi-store model.
- Computer model refers to programmes that can be ran on a computer to imitate the human mind (mind is compared to a computer).
- Psychologists can test whether ideas about information processing are correct. E.g computer uses ‘coding’ to store information, humans use ‘coding’ to store memories in different formats such acoustic or semantic.
10
Q
The Emergence Of Cognitive Neuroscience.
A
- Fusion of the cognitive approach and biology - influence of brain structures (neuro) and mental processes mental processes (cognition).
- Now able to study the living brain, using brain imaging technology like positron emission tomography (PET) and functional resonance imaging (fMRI), which helps us to understand neurological basis of mental processing.
- E.g research shown that episodic and semantic memories are stored in opposite side. Also link between parahippocampal gyrus and OCD.
- Cognitive neuroscience has expanded the use of computer generate models that are designed to ‘read’ the brain. In the future it is believed it can be used to analyse the brain wave pattern of eyewitnesses to determine whether or not they are lying.
11
Q
Strength: Scientific Methods.
A
- The cognitive approach employs highly scientific and objective methods.
- For example, lab experiments are used to produce reliable and objective data such as Peterson and Peterson’s research into the duration of memory.
- High control variables in experiments such as these means that cause and effect can be easily established.
- This increases the validity of the results, which in turn increases the support for the cognitive approach.
12
Q
Limitation: Machine Reductionism.
A
- This approach has been criticised for being reductionist.
- Although, there are similarities between the human mind and a computer, this machine reductionism ignores other influences on human cognition and how these affect processing such as the effect anxiety has an impact of EWT.
- This shows that the human mind is more complex than a machine.
13
Q
Limitation: Application To Everyday Life.
A
- It is difficult to apply the research from this approach to everyday life.
- Making inferences about cognitive processes still involves some degree of subjective judgement about an abstract concept and experiments often use artificial stimuli such as world lists to test memory.
- The research from this approach may lack external validity.
- This in turn limits the usefulness of the cognitive approach as a whole.
14
Q
Strength: Treatment Application.
A
- The cognitive approach has been used in the treatment of psychological disorders.
- The cognitive approach has been used to explain how faulty thinking processes can cause illnesses such as depression.
- The cognitive approach has therefore led to the development of successful treatments, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
- This shows that the cognitive approach has improved the lives of many individuals suffering from illnesses like depression.
15
Q
Strength: Less Deterministic
A
- The cognitive approach is less deterministic than other approaches.
- The cognitive approach is founded on soft determinism as it recognises that our cognitive system can only operate within the limits of what we know, but that we are free to think before responding to a stimulus.
- This is a more reasonable position than the hard determinism suggested by some other approaches where our behaviour is controlled by other things, such as the unconscious mind, our environment or biology.
