Cognitive Approach

Question 1

When was the cognitive approach developed?

Answer 1

1950s

Question 2

What do cognitive psychologists focus on?

Answer 2

Internal mental approaches

Question 3

What do cognitive psychologists argue?

Answer 3

that behaviourists neglected how internal mental processes direct and affect our behaviour

Question 4

How do cognitive psychologists believe internal mental processes should be studied?

Answer 4

• scientifically, but they recognise that our internal mental processes are ‘private’ and can not be observed
• therefore, they study our internal mental processes INDIRECTLY by making inferences about the way our mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour.

Question 5

What are the 5 internal mental processes?

Answer 5

perception
attention
memory
language
thinking

Question 6

What is perception?

Answer 6

the process of taking in and interpreting information from our senses

Question 7

What is attention?

Answer 7

the process by which we focus on a particular source of information rather than others

Question 8

What is memory?

Answer 8

the process of retaining and recalling information

Question 9

What is language?

Answer 9

the study of communication and thinking in relation to language

Question 10

What is thinking?

Answer 10

the process of manipulating information in the mind in order to reason, problem-solve and make decisions

Question 11

Internal mental processes can be seen as…

Answer 11

interconnected processing systems (they work together) that allow us to make sense of and respond appropriately to the world

Question 12

What are schema?

Answer 12

packets of information about the world around us that we store in our long term memory

Question 13

What are the 3 types of schema?

Answer 13

objective schema
event schema
role schema

Question 14

What is object schema?

Answer 14

you know what an object is and how to use it

Question 15

What is event schema?

Answer 15

you know how different events play out, what to expect, and how you should act at them

Question 16

What is role schema?

Answer 16

everyone plays a role and you know how different roles should act

Question 17

How do we develop our schema?

Answer 17

experience through our environment

Question 18

Schema allows us to cognitively process lots of information quickly by providing us with…

Answer 18

• short cuts
• these help us make sense of the world (eg you know its a wedding because of the white dress, suit, flowers etc, and you know how to act)

Question 19

What models do cognitive psychologists use to help them understand internal mental processes?

Answer 19

both theoretical and computer models

Question 20

What are theoretical models?

Answer 20

diagrammatic representations of the steps involved in internal mental processes

Question 21

What are computer models?

Answer 21

software simulations of internal mental processes that are created in collaboration with computer scientists

Question 22

Theoretical model: the information processing approach

Answer 22

1) encoding of sensory information - input = see chocolates
2) information manipulation (mental processes) - think about chocolates 3) output (eg behaviour / emotion) - eat your favourite chocolate

Question 23

Theoretical model: the information processing approach and the multi-store model of memory

Answer 23

1) information
2) sensory memory store - forget information we didn’t pay attention to
3) if payed attention to, goes to short term memory (can be forgotten)
4) rehearsal + retrieval moves information to the long term memory (can be forgotten)

Question 24

Computer model: Alpha Go - artificial intelligence

Answer 24

• involves programming a computer to see if information processing instructions produce a similar output in computers as humans
• if they do, we can suggest that similar processes are going on in the human mind
• such computer models have proved useful in the development of AI such as Alpha Go

Question 25

What is Alpha Go?

Answer 25

a computer program designed to simulate human internal mental processes - specifically tactical game play

Question 26

What is cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 26

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

Question 27

What is an early example of cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 27

Paul Brocca identified how damage to an area of the frontal lobe could permanently impair speech production in the 1860s

Question 28

What has happened in the last 25 years that has allowed for the emergence of cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 28

advances in brain imaging techniques (eg MRI/ PET) have abled scientists to systematically observe and describe the neurological basis of mental processes.

Question 29

What was Buckner and Peterson (1996) able to show about long term memory using brain imaging techniques?

Answer 29

how different types of LTM may be located on opposite sides of the prefrontal cortex by doing research that involved tasks that required the use of episodic and semantic memory

Question 30

What part of the brain is linked to OCD and why might it be linked to OCD?

Answer 30

• Parahippocampal gyrus
• it appears to play a role in processing unpleasant emotions

Question 31

How is cognitive neuroscience now expanding and what possible future applications might this have?

Answer 31

• expanding to include the use of computer generated models that are designed to ‘read’ the brain
• this has led to the development of mind-mapping techniques - brain ‘fingerprinting’
• possible future application = to analyse the brain wave patterns of eyewitnesses to determine whether they are lying in court