Cognitive Approach Flashcards
What is the cognitive approach?
Cognition refers to mental activity including thinking, remembering, learning and using language. When we apply a cognitive approach to learning and teaching, we focus on the understanding of information and concepts.
What are internal mental processes?
Operations that occur in the mind , but can be studied scientifically. They are also known as mediational processes because they occur between the stimulus and the response. Common mental processes include memory, emotion, perception, imagination, thinking and reasoning.
What is schema?
Schema describes a pattern of thought or behaviour that organises categories of information and the relationships among them.
What is an inference?
Going beyond the immediate to make assumptions about internal mental processes that can not be directly observed.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
The study of how the brain enables the mind. Brain science explores how individual neurons operate and communicate to form complex neuronal architectures that comprise the human mind.
What are the assumptions of the cognitive approach?
- Behaviour is influenced by thoughts These internal mental processes lie between the stimulus and response. These can and should be studied scientifically and objectively.
- Humans are information processors because our internal mental processes extract, store and retrieve information that helps to guide our behaviour, like a computer.
- Models are used to create testable theories about mental processing and these can be studied scientifically.
- However, we can’t study the processes directly because they are private so they’re studied indirectly and inferences are made on the basis of observed behaviour.
- Cognitive and biological processes can be intergrated leading to cognitive neuroscience as a way of understanding human behaviour.
How can schemas be both good and bad?
They help us to simplify our interactions with the world , but they cab both help and hurt us. Some schemas may be stereotypes that cause us to misinterpret information. They do however organise our knowledge into categories.
What is a strength of the cognitive approach related to depression?
- A strength of the cognitive approach is that it has many applications. For example, the cognitive approach to psychopathology has been able to explain dysfunctional behaviour in terms of faulty thinking processes. This has led to the development of treatments for illnesses such as depression with cognitive-based therapies. These treatments, which aim to change dysfunctional ways of thinking, have been shown to be successful in some mental disorders which suggests that the emphasis on mental processes explaining mental disorders is valid.
What is a strength of the cognitive approach related to the scientific approach?
A strength is that the cognitive approach can be considered a scientific approach. Although cognitive psychologists create theories and models of behaviour , they do this as a result of experimentation with human participants.This means that their conclusions are based on far more than common sense and introspection, which can give a misleading picture. As such, the approach can be seen as a systematic, objective and rigorous way for reaching accurate conclusions about how the mind works.
What is a major limitation of the cognitive approach?
The use of computer models. For example, the cognitive approach uses terms such as ‘encoding’ and ‘storage’ for the mind which are borrowed from this field. However there are important differences between the human mind and computer programmes. For example, human minds make mistakes, can forget, and are able to ignore available information when necessary. These are all fundamental differences.
What is a con of the cognitive approach?
A further problem is that the cognitive approach appears to ignore important factors. Although the cognitive approach tells us how cognitive processes take place, it doesn’t tell is why they take place. The role of emotion and motivation are largely ignored. This may result of the computer analogy and the over-dependence of this approach on information processing analogies. Human possess motivation and emotion, whereas information-processing machines do not.
When is a model theoretical?
- A theoretical model is a simplified, usually pictorial, representation of a particular mental process - they often include boxes and arrows to show cause and effect or the stages of a particular mental process.
- It is based on available evidence e.g experiments
- A model provides an analogy of how mental processes work.
When is a model computer?
- When computer analogies are used as a representation of human cognition, suggesting that there is a similarity in the way information is processed.
- Key assumption - the brain processes information like a computer
1. Central processing unit - brain
2. Coding - turning information into a useable format
3. Stores - to hold different chunks of information
4. Output - observable behaviour
