Cognitive Ap. Flashcards
What are the two assumptions of the cognitive approach?
The first assumption of the cognitive approach is that psychology must study mental processes.
The second assumption of the cognitive approach is that the mind works like a computer, because stimuli are like inputs, the mind processes those inputs, and then behaviour is like an output.
What is an inference?
An inference is when psychologists make conclusions about mental processes, based on observations of behaviour.
How do cognitive psychologists use theoretical models and inference to study the mind?
Cognitive psychologists measure behaviour and then make inferences about how mental processes work. These inferences allow us to support or reject theoretical cognitive models. Inference is also used to adjust and refine cognitive models/theories.
What is meant by mental sequences occurring in parallel and in sequence?
Mental processes occurring in sequence means that each mental process happens one after the other, for example perceiving an environment, then paying attention to it, then making a decision and then undertaking a behaviour.
Mental processes occurring in parallel means when mental processes happen at the same time, for example seeing and hearing something at the same time.
What is a schema?
A schema is a mental framework that we form from our experiences that affect our expectations and our behaviours. People’s schemas are informed by their own experiences, which means that different people will have different schemas.
What is meant by: Assimilation in the context of a schema?
When a new experience matches our schema, and is incorporated into our schema, we say it is assimilated into our schema.
What is meant by: Accommodation in the context of a schema?
Accommodation is when we change our schema to match new information that does not fit with the current schema.
Which research found support for schemas?
Support for the existence of schemas comes from a famous study conducted by Bartlett, in 1932.
Describe Bartlett’s study of schemas.
Bartlett recruited English participants, and asked them to read a Native American folk tale called The War of the Ghosts. The story contained concepts that the participants had never heard before. Then Bartlett asked the participants to recall the story and he measured how many details from the story they got wrong.
He found that the participants changed many of the details to sound much more English and that they were more familiar with.
When the participants recalled the story, they changed the details of the story to match their own schema. This supported the idea that schemas affect how we interpret and remember new experiences
Cognitive Approach in a sentence.
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of the mind as an information processor.
How does the cognitive approach make inferences about the human mind?
Cognitive researchers study observable behaviour to make inferences about mental processes.
What did Bartlett find, briefly, and what was this support for?
Bartlett found that people change the details of an unfamiliar story, so that it more closely matched their own experiences. This provided support for the role of schemas in how we interpret and remember information.
Why is the cognitive approach scientific?
The cognitive approach is scientific because:
• the theories are falsifiable.
• Cognitive psychologists make inferences based on observable behaviour, meaning they rely on empirical evidence
• they conducts laboratory experiments with high control over extraneous variables
Schemas are…
schemas are mental frameworks that help us interpret new information
What are 2 strengths of the cognitive approach?
highly scientific
has applications in treatment and therapy for mental disorders, for example through cognitive behavioural therapy
