Cognitive approach Flashcards
What is the cognitive approach?
Explains human behavior through internal mental processes
What are the 4 assumptions of the cognitive approach?
-look at internal mental processes to understand behavior
-Thought processes should be studied in a lab
-Mental processes should be studied indirectly by making inferences as they cannot be observed
-we should focus on the flow of information
What does cognition mean?
mental processes
How is the cognitive approach different from SLT and behaviorism?
Behaviorism and SLT considers external environmental influences
What is an internal mental process?
Operations that occur in the mind, but can be studied scientifically.
What are 4 examples of internal mental processes?
Attention
Memory
Perception
Thinking
What is an inference?
reaching a logical conclusion about what process is occurring based on evidence
What is in between the SR unit?
Internal mental processes
Why do we have to make inferences in the cognitive approach?
Because mental processes are private as we cant see thoughts however we can see the inputs and outputs and can guess what happens
What are theoretical models?
Give an example
Simplified representations of the mind’s internal mental processes based on current evidence
Computer models
How are computer models used to make inferences
Computers and the mind process information in a similar way.
Input —–> processing —–> output
Why might there be different (processing) stages?
eg) You wave at a friend and she doesnt wave back
Because people could think of different things, she could be ignoring you or didn’t see you
What is a schema?
a mental package of beliefs and expectations on a topic that comes from experience
What do schemas help us do?
-make shortcuts in thinking
-organize and interpret info
What are we born with?
(schema)
Were born with a motor schema for innate behavior then they develop from experience
What can schemas lead to?
Faulty conclusions
What are the 2 processes of how we build our schema?
(Piaget’s theory)
Assimilation and accommodation
What is Assimilation?
Adding more info to our schemas that we didn’t have
What is accommodation?
Changing info in our schemas that contradicts previous info
What 2 ways can schemas be useful?
-Help us predict what will happen in the world based on our experience
(know how to behave in a restaurant)
-Prevents us being overwhelmed by our environmental stimuli
(airports, where to put bag)
How can a schema lead to stereotypes and prejudice?
If we have a pre-conceived idea about something, it may cloud our judgment
(eg if you had a bad experience with colored people we automatically think they’re all bad)
How can schemas lead to inaccurate eyewitnesses?
They can distort unfamiliar information to ‘fit in’ with our existing knowledge
(eg. if we can’t remember a criminal we automatically think it is a man)
What is cognitive neuroscience?
Scientific study of how the brain influences mental processes
How did the cognitive approach originate through Paul Broca?
-A man was transferred to Broca hospital with an infection, and could only mutter the word tan
-Found a lesion in his left frontal lobe
-Named it Brocas area which is responsible for speech production
What 3 things do cognitive neuroscience study?
Neural processes
Social cognition
Impairments
What is cognitive neuroscience- 4 mark example
-Scientific study of how the brain influences mental processes
-Uses brain scanning techniques such as fMRI
-Studies Neural processes, social cognition, Impairments
-Tells us how the brain functions and achieves performance
What are the 3 strengths of the cognitive approach?
-Real-life application
-Scientific and objective
-Soft determinism
How can the cognitive approach be a real-life application?
It led to the development of psychopathy
Explains depression through faulty info processing
Led to CBT which has helped many
How can the cognitive approach be Scientific and objective?
Scientific- Investigated IMPs in a lab with high control for extraneous variables and high internal validity
Objective-the emergence of cog neuroscience used biological techniques so it was more scientific and reliable
How can the cognitive approach be soft determinism?
-A cognitive system can only operate with stuff we already know
-BUT we are free to think before we respond in situations (the processing stage)
-This gives us an element of choice, so it’s a popular
What are the 2 limitations of the cognitive approach?
Low external validity
Machine reductionism
How can the cognitive approach have low external validity?
-It’s too theoretical as we can only infer about mental processes
-Uses artificial stimuli (eg the rat man study) as in real life we know the difference between a rat and a man so it does not represents real-life
How is the cognitive approach machine reductionist?
-The computer analogy
-Ignores the complexity of humans to its most simplistic form that we process the same as a computer
-It ignores emotion and motivation
