Cognitive approach

Question 1

What does the cognitive approach focus on?

Answer 1

How our mental processes (thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour

Question 2

What are schemas?

Answer 2

‘Packages’ of ideas and information developed through experience, acting as a mental framework for the information we receive, and allowing us to respond to the object appropriately (eg. recognising a chair and knowing I’m supposed to sit on it)

Question 3

Are babies born with a schema?

Answer 3

Babies are born with a simple motor schema for innate behaviour - sucking/ grasping. As we get older, our schemas become more detailed and we develop a mental representation for everything

Question 4

What is cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What does brain mapping do?

Answer 5

Looks at areas in the brain which perform specific cognitive functions

Question 6

What are some brain imaging techniques?

Answer 6

MRI, fMRI and PET

Question 7

What do the brain imaging techniques allow scientists to do?

Answer 7

Research into memory and establish a neurological basis for some disorders such as OCD

Question 8

Give 2 strengths of the cognitive approach

Answer 8

1. Scientific method - use highly controlled and vigorous methods of study and the lab studies produce reliable and objective data
2. Real world application - cognitive psychology has played an important role in the development of AI and robots

Question 9

Give 2 weaknesses of the cognitive approach

Answer 9

1. Lacks external validity - because it relies on the inference of mental processes it can sometimes be too abstract, and research is usually carried out using artificial stimuli which may not represent real life
2. Machine reductionism - there are similarities between the human mind and a computer (input, output, storage), but the computer analogy has been criticised for ignoring human emotion - eg. human memory can be affected by anxiety