Cognitive Approach Flashcards
Cognitive approach
The idea that humans conduct mental processes on incoming information - i.e. human cognition - came to the fore of psychological thought during the mid twentieth century, overlooking the stimulus-response focus of the behaviourist approach.
A dominant cognitive approach evolved, advocating that sensory information is manipulated internally prior to responses made - influenced by, for instance, our motivations and beliefs.
Introspection - a subjective method predominantly used by philosophical and psychodynamic approaches - was rejected in favour of experimental methodology to study internal processes scientifically.
The cognitive approach assumes:
- The mind actively processes information from our senses.
- Between stimulus and response are complex mental processes, that can be studied scientifically.
- Humans can be seen as data processing systems.
- The workings of a computer and the human mind are alike - they encode and store information, and they have outputs.
Assumptions
In direct contrast to the behaviourist approach, the cognitive approach argues that internal mental processes can, and should, be studied scientifically.
The cognitive approach has investigated areas of human behaviour that were neglected by the behaviourist approach, such as, memory, perception and thinking.
These processes are private and unobservable, so cognitive psychologists study them indirectly by making inferences about what is going on inside people’s minds based on their behaviour.
Cognitive approach main components:
1) Theoretical and Computer models
2) Schema
3) Emergence of cognitive neuroscience
1) Theoretical and Computer models
Cognitive psychologists use both theoretical and computer models to help them understand internal mental processes.
In reality, there are overlaps between these two models but basically theoretical models are abstract whereas computer models are concrete things.
One important theoretical model is the ‘information processing approach’ which suggests that information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages that include input, storage and retrieval, as in the multi-store model of memory.
This information processing approach is based on the way that computers function but a computer model would involve actually programming a computer to see if such instructions produce a similar output to humans. If they do then we can suggest that similar processes are going on in the human mind.
Such computational models of the mind have proved useful in the development of ‘thinking machines’ or artificial intelligence.
Theoretical models are visual representations of internal mental processes that are used to help researchers simplify and study complex mental processes.
Theoretical models are typically diagrams or flowcharts that show how information is passed between the different systems that manipulate it. For example, the multi-store model is a theoretical model of memory.
2) Schema
Cognitive processing can often be affected by a person’s beliefs or expectations, often referred to as ‘schema’.
Schema are packages of ideas and information developed through experience. They act as a mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information received by the cognitive system.
Babies are born with simple motor schema for innate behaviours such as sucking and grasping. For example, the grasping schema consists of moving a hand towards an object and shaping the hand around the object in coordination with visual input.
As we get older, our schema becomes more detailed and sophisticated. Adults have developed mental representations for almost everything.
Schema enables us to process lots of information quickly which is useful as a mental short-cut that prevents us from being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli.
Schema provides us with expectations about what will happen in the world, rather than requiring us to process every single detail, all of the time.
Schema allows us to make sense of ambiguous situations by ‘filling in the gaps’ in our knowledge. They allow us to act comfortably even when our information is incomplete which makes it much easier to deal with complex situations.
However, schema may also distort our interpretations of sensory information, leading to perceptual errors. An example is if a person’s expectations do not match up with the reality of what they have seen/experienced.
3) Emergence of cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of the influence of brain structures on mental processes.
Mapping brain areas to specific cognitive functions has a long history in psychology.
As early as the 1860s, Paul Broca had identified how damage to an area of the frontal lobe (which came to be known as Broca’s Area) could permanently impair speech production.
It is only in the last 20 years, however, with advances in brain imaging techniques such as fMRI and PET scans, that scientists have been able to systematically observe and describe the neurological basis of mental processes.
For example, in research involving tasks that required the use of episodic and semantic memory, Tulving et al were able to show how these different types of long-term memory may be located on opposite sides of the pre-frontal cortex. As well as this, the system in overall charge of working memory - the central executive - is thought to reside in a similar area.
Scanning techniques have also proved useful in establishing the neurological basis of some disorders.
For example, the link between the parahippocampal gyrus and OCD is discussed. It appears to play a role in processing unpleasant emotions.
The focus of cognitive neuroscience has expanded recently 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 known as ‘brain fingerprinting’.
One possible future application of this could be to analyse the brain wave patterns of eyewitnesses to determine whether they are lying in court.
Strength
Weakness
Application to everyday life
As we have seen, cognitive psychologists are only able to infer mental processes from the behaviour they observe in their research. As a consequence, cognitive psychology occasionally suffers from being too abstract and theoretical in nature. Similarly, experimental studies of mental processes are often carried out using artificial stimuli (such as tests of memory involving word lists) that may not represent everyday memory experience. Therefore research on cognitive processes may lack external validity.
Strength
Scientific and objective methods
The cognitive approach has always employed highly controlled and rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes at work. This has involved the use of lab experiments to produce reliable, objective data. In addition, the emergence of cognitive neuroscience has enabled the 2 fields of biology and cognitive psychology to come together. This means that the study of the mind has established a credible scientific basis.
Weakness
Machine reductionism
Although there are similarities between the human mind and the operations of a computer (inputs and outputs, storage systems, the use of a central processor), the computer analogy has been criticised by many. Such machine reductionism ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system, and how this may affect our ability to process information. For instance, research has found that human memory may be affected by emotional factors, such as the influence of anxiety on eyewitnesses.
