cognitive approach Flashcards
why and when did the cognitive approach develop?
psychologists were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the way behaviourism over-looked the importance of the human mind when explaining behaviour
(1960s)
define cognition
the process of acquiring knowledge through thought, experience, and the senses
3 main assumptions of the cognitive approach
1) information received from our senses is processed by the brain and that this processing directs how we behave.
2) cognitive psychologists believe that it is possible to study internal mental
processes in an objective way,
psychologists study them indirectly by making inferences (assumptions) about what is going on inside people’s minds on the basis of their behaviour
3) cognitive psychologists think the mind works like a computer, it has an input from our senses which it processes and produces an output such as language or specific behaviours
define internal mental processes
“private” operations of the mind that mediate between stimulus and response
define inference
a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning
examples of mental processes
-perception
-attention
-thinking
-problem solving
what is a schema?
-packages of ideas and information developed through experience
-they act as a mental framework for the interpretation of information
how do schemas help us?
-process lots of information quickly
-provide short cuts to identifying things that we come across
-stop us getting overwhelmed by stimuli
-help us predict what will happen in new situations
what do schemas come from?
experience
what happens to schemas as we get older?
our schema becomes more sophisticated and detailed
how schemas affect eye witness testimonies
in the field of eye-witness testimony, schemas about race, gender and social class can bias witness’s memories of events in as stereotypes may cause them to believe that some people are more likely to commit crime
what is a model and how is it used?
a representation of something we can’t physically see, used by cognitive psychologists to explain unobservable processes in a concrete, testable
way
theoretical models
diagrammatic representations of the steps involved in internal mental processes - suggest that mind stores things systematically
what are computer models?
representations that suggest that the mind works like a computer and codes information (turns information into a format in which it can be stored)
what do cognitive psychologists often compare the human mind to and why?
a computer
-it compares how we take information (input) / store it or change it (process) /and then recall it when necessary (output)
input
the input comes from the environment via the senses and is encoded by the individual (touch, sight, smell)
processing
the information once encoded can be processed (eg: schemas)
output
the behavioural response
what are the three types of memory?
1) sensory memory
2) short term memory
3) long term memory
which cognitive process is involved in transferring information from the sensory register to the short-term
memory?
attention
how can you keep information in your short-term memory?
rehearsal
which cognitive process is involved in transferring information from the short term memory to the long term memory?
not rehearsing your memory
which cognitive process is involved in transferring information from the long term memory to the short term memory?
retrieval
applications of the cognitive approach: cognitive development
-piaget proposed stages of cognitive development which reflect the increasing development of children’s thinking
-the information-processing approach sees children’s minds as computers that gradually develop in processing ability.
applications of the cognitive approach: mood disorders
-beck’s model of depression sees faulty thinking as the cause of depression
-ellis believes emotional and behavioural disorders develop because of irrational beliefs and thoughts
applications of the cognitive approach: the cognitive interview
-models of memory have helped us to understand the cognitive processes involved in it further
-knowledge of how memory works has been applied to interviewing witnesses e.g. the cognitive interview
applications of the cognitive approach: therapy
ellis’ rational emotive therapy (RET) helps to restructure faulty thinking and perceptions in depression
what is cognitive neuroscience?
an academic field that studies how brain structures affect mental processes
why did the emergence of cognitive neuroscience occur?
due to the development of brain imaging techniques such as fMRI and PET scans
why do cognitive neuroscientists investigate people with brain injuries?
to discover how the nature & location of their brain damage affects how they process information
why is the cognitive approach becoming the dominant paradigm in modern psychology?
because of the use of sophisticated brain scanning techniques (to observe functioning in specific areas) AND the experimental methods (to infer the processes taking place)
maguire’s cognitive neuroscience study: aim
to investigate the function of the hippocampus in spatial memory
maguire’s cognitive neuroscience study: participants
16 healthy, right-handed, male, licensed london taxi drivers
maguire’s cognitive neuroscience study: comparison
the taxi drivers were compared with the MRI scans of 50 healthy right-handed males who did not drive taxis
maguire’s cognitive neuroscience study: findings
1) the hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger than those of control subjects.
2) the hippocampal volume correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver (i.e. the longer the participant had been working, the bigger his hippocampus was)
HM & implications of memory
-HM had his hippocampus removed in an operation to reduce his epilepsy
-after the operation he could remember things he had just been told suggesting that his STM was intact, but he could not transfer this information to the LTM
-thus he could not form new long-term memories. He could, however, remember things (LTM) from before the surgery
-this provides evidence for the MSM’s argument that STM and LTM are separate
strengths of cognitive neuroscience
-it’s objective in it’s research (scanning) and is more scientific than inferring
-has demonstrated the brain’s plasticity throughout life, supporting the role of experience affecting our brain and behaviour
-has provided detail on the neurobiological basis of certain psychological disorders resulting in the development of new therapeutics and removing blame and stigma
-the early identification for cognitive problems prior to observable behaviour has provided potential for early intervention
strengths and limitations of the cognitive approach:
strengths:
limitations:
ao3 / limitation - reliance on inference
P - the cognitive approach relies on inferences
E - inferences are subjective and vary from person to person
L - the fact that the information isn’t objective makes it less scientific and less credible as the inferences obtained may not be repeatably obtained
ao3 / limitation - lack of external validity
P - lack of external validity
E - participant’s responses may not be the same in a lab as they are in real life. For example they may be responding to demand characteristics
L - this makes the results less credible and unable to be generalised
ao3 / strength - real life applications
P - practical applications to everyday life
E - cognitive research into internal mental processes has led to the development of CBT a form of therapy for a range of illnesses like depression that aims to try to identify maladaptive thoughts which could contribute to depression & try to change them to more rational thoughts
L - a very successful treatment has emerged using the cognitive theory, supporting the cognitive approach
ao3 / limitation - machine reductionist
P - machine reductionist
E - the computer analogy has been criticised by many / even the most advanced computer technology can’t mimic more complex human mental states, machine reductionism ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system and how this may affect our ability to process information (e.g. the effect of anxiety on EWT)
L -that the cognitive approach oversimplifies human cognitive processing as it neglects other factors that influence performance
ao3 / strength - most dominant approach in psychology today
P - most dominant approach in psychology today
E - has been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts / eg: cognitive psychology has made an important contribution in the field of artificial intelligence (Al) and the development of thinking machines (robots)
L - these exciting advances may revolutionise how we live in the future
ao3 / weakness - the approach is descriptive not explanatory
P - the approach is descriptive not explanatory
E - it describes processing in the brain
but does not always explain the cause of those processes / eg: in depression, the cognitive model describes the thought processes in someone with depression but does not explain the origin of these thoughts
L - this is a weakness because it does not fully account for all human behaviour
