APPS 04 - Cognitive approach Flashcards
What is the cognitive approach?
The term ‘cognitive’ has come to mean ‘mental processes’, so this approach is focused on how our mental processes (e.g. thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour
What are internal mental processes?
‘Private’ operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response
What is a schema?
- A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing
- They are developed from experience e.g. you have a scheme of a chair which is something with legs that you can sit on
- As we get older our schema become more detailed and sophisticated
- Schema enable us to process lots of information quickly and this is useful as a sort of mental shortcut that prevents us from being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli
- However, schema may also distort our interpretations of sensory information, leading to perceptual errors
What is inference?
The process whereby cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour
What is cognitive neuroscience?
The scientific study of those biological structures that underpin cognitive processes
What are event schemas?
- They are focused on patterns of behaviour that should be followed for certain events
- This acts much like a script informing you of what you should do, how you should act, and what you should say in a particular situation
What are self-schemas?
- They are focused on your knowledge about yourself
- This can include both what you know about your current self as well as ideas about your idealized or future self
Why do inferences have to be made?
Because the processes cannot be observed, so they are studied indirectly by making inferences about what is going on inside people’s minds based of their behaviour
What are the assumptions of the cognitive approach?
- The cognitive approach argues that internal mental processes can and should be studied scientifically
- The cognitive approach has investigated those areas of human behaviour that were neglected by behaviourists such as memory, perception and thinking
- These processes are ‘private’ and cannot be observed, so cognitive psychologists study them indirectly making inferences about what is going on inside people’s minds on the basis of their behaviour
- The mind actively processes information from our sense (touch, taste, sight, sound, smell)
- Between stimulus and response are complex mental processes, which can be studied scientifically
- Humans can be seen as data processing systems
- The workings of a computer and the human mind are alike – they encode and store information, and they have outputs
What is the difference between a theoretical and computer model?
- Theoretical models are abstract and suggest the mind processes information in a systematic way. The models explain the structures and processes involved in some cognitive functioning, such as in the MSM. Inferences can then be made.
- Computer models are more concrete. They give software simulations of internal mental processes, which give predictions and explanations. The output can then be compared to outputs from experiments with humans. AI.
What are the strengths of the cognitive approach?
- Uses objective, scientific methods
- Has real world applications
How does the cognitive approach use objective and scientific measures?
- One strength of the cognitive approach is that it uses objective, scientific methods
- Cognitive psychologists employ highly controlled and rigorous methods of study, so researchers are able to infer cognitive processes at work
- This has involved the use of lab studies to produce reliable, objective data
- In addition, the emergence of cognitive neuroscience has enabled the two fields of biology and cognitive psychology to come together to enhance the scientific basis of study
- This means that the study of the mind has a credible scientific basis
How does the cognitive approach have real world applications?
- Another strength of the cognitive approach is that it has practical application
- The cognitive approach is probably the dominant approach in psychology today and has been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts
- For example, cognitive psychology has made an important contribution in the field of artificial intelligence (Al) and the development of ‘thinking machines’ (robots)
- These are advances that may revolutionise how we live in the future
- Cognitive principles have also been applied to the treatment of and improved the reliability of eyewitness testimony
- This supports the value of the cognitive approach
What are the limitations of the cognitive approach?
- Can suffer from being too abstract
- It is based on machine reductionism
How could the cognitive approach be too abstract?
- As cognitive psychology relies on the inference of mental processes, rather than direct observation of behaviour, it can occasionally suffer from being too abstract and theoretical in nature
- Similarly, research studies of mental processes are often carried out using artificial stimuli (such as tests of memory involving word lists) that may not represent everyday experience
- Therefore, research on cognitive processes may lack external validity
How is the cognitive approach based on machine reductionism?
- One limitation of the cognitive approach is that it is based on machine reductionism
- There are similarities between the human mind and the operations of a ‘thinking machine’ such as a computer (inputs and outputs, storage systems, the use of a central processor)
- However, the computer analogy has been criticised. Such machine reductionism ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system, and how this may affect our ability to process information
- For instance, research has found that human memory may be affected by emotional factors, such as the influence of anxiety on eyewitnesses
- This suggests that machine reductionism may weaken the validity of the cognitive approach
What is the difference between a PET and an fMRI scan?
- PET uses mildly radioactive substances, whereas fMRI uses magnetic fields
- fMRI shows more detail than PET scans and can show changes in activity
