Cognitive

Question 1

What was a major development that allowed the cognitive approach to develop around the 1960’s?

Answer 1

Early computers gave cognitive psychologists a metaphor for mental processes.

Question 2

What are he assumptions of the cognitive approach?

Answer 2

The approach argues that internal mental processes can, and should, be studied scientifically. It focuses on how people perceive, store, manipulate and interpret information.

Question 3

What was the key objectives of the cognitive approach?

Answer 3

To study areas that are neglected by other approaches such as the behaviourist approach.

Question 4

What are the features of the approach?

Answer 4

• Theoretical and computer models.

- Schema.

Question 5

What models do the cognitive psychologists use to help explain internal mental processes?

Answer 5

Theoretical and Computer Models.

Question 6

What is the difference between the two computer models?

Answer 6

Theoretical models are abstract whereas computer models are concrete things.

Question 7

How does a computer model explain the flow of information?

Answer 7

It flows through a sequence of stages:
Input -> Storage -> Retrieval
Based upon how computers function.

Question 8

What is schema?

Answer 8

A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing, they are developed from past experiences.

Question 9

Some processes are studied through inference, what is inference?

Answer 9

The process whereby cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour.

Question 10

You have a schema for a chair, what would this schema consist of?

Answer 10

Something with 4 legs, that you cans sit on.

Question 11

What type of schema is a baby born with?

Answer 11

Innate simple motor schema such as sucking and grasping.

Question 12

A baby has a schema for grasping, what would this schema consist of?

Answer 12

Reaching both hands towards an object.

Question 13

As we get older, what happens to some of our schemas such as grasping?

Answer 13

They become more detailed and sophisticated as we develop mental representations for different objects.

Question 14

What does schema help us with?

Answer 14

Processing lots of information quickly and deciding what to do.

Question 15

Which feature can explain why we make perceptual errors?

Answer 15

Schema from previous experiences.

Question 16

What is cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 16

The scientific study of the influence of brain structures on mental processes.

Question 17

How does cognitive neuroscience work?

Answer 17

It maps specific brain areas to specific cognitive functions using new scientific scanning techniques.

Question 18

In the last 20 years, scientific advantages have lead to developing brain imaging techniques being developed, name some of these:

Answer 18

fMRI’s and PET scans.

Question 19

What do new brain scanning techniques allow cognitive scientists to do?

Answer 19

They can systematically observe and describe the neurological basis of mental processes.

Question 20

Cognitive neuroscience developments have made it possible to establish a neurological basis for some mental disorders, give an example of one:

Answer 20

There is a link between the parrahippocampal gyrus and OCD.

Question 21

Comment on the research methods:

Answer 21

Cognitive neuroscience is highly scientific and objective to allow us to produce reliable, objective data and internal reliability.

Question 22

The approach has real life application:

Answer 22

Made a huge contribution to AI and robots as we can give them primal cognitive processes for interactions. However, they do not have high external validity as robots don’t have experiences from their past.

Question 23

The approach employs soft determinism:

Answer 23

The approach recognises that our cognitive system can only operate within the limits of what we know, however we are free to think before responding to a stimulus.

Question 24

The approach employs machine reductionism:

Answer 24

The approach ignores the influence of human emotion or motivation and views us as computers with procedural instructions. Research has shown that human emotion can affect memory and other things.

Question 25

The approach lacks application to everyday life:

Answer 25

The information can be used in AI and robots, however they cannot be used practically in everyday life as they lack experiences that are unique to each human which mans there is low external validity.