cognitive approach Flashcards
how should internal mental processes be studied and what did the approach consider
mental processes can and should be studied scientifically
areas ignored by behaviourists such as thinking, memory and perception were considered
how do cognitive psychologists conclude findings
they infer from observation of visible human behaviour because perceptions are internal and cannot be directly studied
what are schema and how do they help
schema are a mental framework of beliefs and expectations developed from experience which become more developed as you age
they help us to interpret oncoming information quickly and effectively, preventing us from being overwhelmed by the vast amount of info we percive in the enviro
example of schema
when babies are born they are born with simple schema but this develops as they age, evident as their only instinct is to cry when they’re very young but they slowly learn new behaviours when they grow such as playing
what is the computer analogy
use of the mind as a tool for thinking how the human mind handles information is known as the computer analogy
essentially a computer codes information, stores information, uses information and produces an output
what is information processing
.how human thought works
1. information made available from the environment is processed by a series of processing systems (e.g attention, perception, short term memory)
2. these processing systems transform or alter the information in systematic ways
3. cognitive research aims to specify processes and structures that underlie cognitive performance
pet: supporting evidence - ratman study
p - one strength of the cognitive approach is that it provides supporting evidence into how schemas allow us to process incoming information
e- what happened in study and it provided evidence for the approach for how schema worked as it established immediate past experience allowed us to process new info
t - supported cognitive’s approach idea of learning from previous experience
pet: usefulness
p - one limitation of the cognitive approach is that it is not useful into understanding the entirety of the human behaviour
e - based on machine reductionism, neglects infleunce of human emotion and motivation on cognitive system, other approaches like h. is holistic and focuses on the person as whole
t - limited for real world application like treating mental disorders such as depression due to the lack of focus on emotion
pete - testability
p - one strength of the cognitive approach is that it employs efficient testing methods
e - the cognitive approach is a scientific and objective method and requires highly controlled and vigorous methods of stud, it employs use of lab experiments, providing reliable objective data
t - provides empirical evidence to back claims and studies the mind with a falsifiable basis which is a key feature of science
e - it relies on the inference of mental processes rather than direct observation, can suffer from being too abstract in nature, additionally the research is done in labs which means it may not reflect everyday expereince - lacks validity
strength - new methods estbalished
1.cognitive research into memory and effects of misleading info reduced over-reliance of eyewitness testimony in court cases
2. led to major reforms in police procedures like the cognitive interview
weakness - machine reductionism
research has found human memory may be affected by emotional facotrs, such as the impact of anxiety on accuracy of recall
what was ratman study
- conducted by bugelski and alampay in 1962
- two groups of participants were shown sequences of pcitures, either a number of different but ambiguous faces or animals
- then shown final pciture of the rat-man
- participants who saw faces were more likely to report seeing a man and animal condition reported seeing a rat
