Cognitive Approach Flashcards
Cognitive approach
How mental processes affect behaviour
Examples of mental processes
Thoughts, perceptions and attitudes
Internal mental processes
Mental operations between stimuli and responses, e.g. perception and attention
Schema
Beliefs and expectations that influence our cognitive processing
How are schemas developed?
From past experiences
Inference
Cognitive psychologists create theories about how mental processes operate on observed behaviour
Cognitive neuroscience
Scientific study of the biological structures of cognitive processes
Which approach contrasts the cognitive approach?
The behaviouristic approach
What type of processes does the cognitive approach study?
Mental processes that cannot be observed
What do schemas allow us to do?
Process a lot of information quickly, to prevent us from being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli
What is the difference between theoretical and computer models?
Theoretical models are abstract, and computer models are concrete models about mental processes
How can cognitive neuroscience be studied today?
Brain-imaging and scanning
Strengths of cognitive approach
- It uses valid, objective, scientific methods
- important in the development of artificial intelligence
Weaknesses of the cognitive approach
- it relies on inference, rather than observable behaviour
- has not much external validity
- based on machine reduction
Machine reductionism
Similarities between the human mind and a computer
