cognitive approach

Question 1

what does cognition mean and what do cognitive psychologists study?

Answer 1

knowing
they study the mental act or process by which knowledge is acquired

Question 2

how is the cognitive approach different from behaviourism and SLT?

Answer 2

-it’s an extension from behaviourism because it argues that our behaviour is determined by the way we process information taken in from our environment by using our internal mental processes
-its different from SLT because it is direct and our behaviour is not caused by observing others
-cognitive approach is not a learning theory

Question 3

what are the 4 assumptions?

Answer 3

-focuses on how people perceive, store, manipulate and interpret info
-look at IMPs to understand behaviour
-thought processes should be studied scientifically- well controlled lab studies
-mental processes are private and cannot be observed. They are studied indirectly by making inferences

Question 4

what does this approach investigate?

Answer 4

areas of human behaviour that were ignored by behaviourists eg perception, attention, memory, lang, thinking

Question 5

what are internal mental processes?

Answer 5

operations that occur in the mind, but can be studied scientifically
e.g. memory, attention, perception

Question 6

what is an inference?

Answer 6

reaching a logical conclusion on the basis of evidence and reasoning

Question 7

why do we need to make inferences?

Answer 7

the cognitive approach recognises that mental processes are private and must be studied indirectly by inferring what goes on as a result of measuring behaviour

Question 8

what are theoretical models?

Answer 8

simplified representations of the mind based on current research evidence

Question 9

give an example of a theoretical model?

Answer 9

multi store model of memory

Question 10

how is the brain similar to a computer?

Answer 10

input ——-> processing ———> output

Question 11

what development caused the development of the cognitive approach?

Answer 11

1960s development of the computer , this led to a focus on how sensory info passes through the system

Question 12

explain the computer analogy?

Answer 12

information passes through senses, is processed within our mind (in memory) and then after this processing we produce an output (behaviour)

Question 13

what is a schema?

Answer 13

a ‘package’ of beliefs and expectations on a topic that come from prior experience

Question 14

explain the role of schema?

Answer 14

they are useful by helping us take shortcuts in thinking and organise and interpret info

we are born with simple motor schema for innate behaviours eg sucking and then develop and evolve from experience

Question 15

what is the name for the idea that we build schema through assimilation and accommodation?

Answer 15

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Question 16

what is assimilation?

Answer 16

we add info to our already existing schema that we didn’t previously have before

Question 17

what is accommodation?

Answer 17

having to adapt or change schema as a result of new, conflicting information

Question 18

when can schemas be useful?

Answer 18

1. in an exam- unfamiliar questions not as uncomfortable because we have expectations due to prior exam experience
2. in a dangerous situation- expectations from prior experience help us detect danger
3. help being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli- eg all airports around the world have the same system

Question 19

when can schemas not be useful?

Answer 19

-can lead to stereotypes and prejudice
-can also lead to inaccurate eye witness testimony

Question 20

how can schemas lead to stereotypes and prejudice?

Answer 20

e.g. police may have experiences with dealing with certain types of people when dealing with crime e.g. POC. They expect POC to be the ones committing crime due to built schema and are more likely to see POC as criminals and arrest them

Question 21

how can schemas lead to inaccurate eye witness testimonies?

Answer 21

schemas are capable of distorting unfamiliar information in order to fit in with existing knowledge or schemas

Question 22

who is the desirable researcher for cognitive?

Answer 22

Bugelski and Alampay 1962

Question 23

describe the rat man study?

Answer 23

-two groups shown a sequence of pictures, either faces or animals before being shown the ambiguous rat man
-people who saw faces more likely to see man and people who saw animals more likely to see rat

Question 24

describe how the influence of schema may be used to explain the results of the rat man study?

Answer 24

the mind takes in the impoverished (ambiguous) sensory input and matches it to the schema derived from past experience. The schema is used to ‘fill in the blanks’ in the input

Question 25

explain some strengths of the rat man study?

Answer 25

-high internal validity; establish cause and effect between IV and DV -control of extraneous variables

Question 26

explain some limitations of the rat man study?

Answer 26

-demand characteristics -low mundane realism so results may not generalise to real life

Question 27

what is cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 27

the scientific study of the influence of brain structure (neuro) on mental processes (cognition)

Question 28

what 3 things do cognitive neuroscientists study?

Answer 28

1. NEURAL PROCESSES underlying memory, attention, perception and awareness e.g. episodic and semantic memories in the prefrontal cortex of the brain 2. SOCIAL COGNITION, the brain regions involved when we interact with others 3. how IMPAIRMENTS in these regions may characterise different psychological conditions e.g. the basal ganglia and OCD

Question 29

how do cognitive neuroscientists investigate the brain using brain imaging techniques?

Answer 29

fMRI, TMS, PET

Question 29

how has cognitive neuroscience become one of the most dominant paradigms in psychology?

Answer 29

advances in brain imaging techniques and experimental methods

Question 30

when was cognitive neuroscience first evidenced?

Answer 30

in 1861 by Paul Broca he had a 51 year old man transferred to Broca's hospital with an uncontrolled infection, he had trouble with speech and could only utter 'tan' post mortem dissection found lesion in the left frontal lobe- Broca's area.

Question 31

what is Broca's area responsible for?

Answer 31

speech production

Question 32

what did the origin of cognitive neuroscience support?

Answer 32

localization of function perspective instead of holistic function perspective parts of the brain responsible for specific functions not just the whole brain responsible for everything.

Question 33

what are some strengths of the cognitive approach?

Answer 33

real life application scientific and objective methods soft-determinism

Question 34

what are some weaknesses of the cognitive approach?

Answer 34

external validity machine reductionism

Question 35

what are 3 topic areas real life application of the cognitive approach?

Answer 35

cognitive development mood disorders memory

Question 36

explain the real life application of cognitive approach to mood disorders?

Answer 36

the cognitive approach has been useful for helping explain 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 understanding of mood disorders lead to the development of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

Question 37

what kind of methods has the cognitive approach focused on?

Answer 37

always employed vigorous methods of study to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes- LAB EXPERIMENTS to produce reliable objective data example; Bugelski and Alampay rat man study; lab experiment the emergence of cognitive neuroscience enabled two fields to work together and establish a scientific basis

Question 38

what is soft-determinism?

Answer 38

recognises that our cognitive system can only operate within the limits of what we know, but that we are free to think before responding to a stimulus

Question 39

how is soft determinism a strength of the cognitive approach?

Answer 39

it is a more interactionist (middle ground) approach than the hard determinism suggested by other approaches e.g. behaviourism well liked approach because people like to believe they have some sort of free will

Question 40

how is external validity a limitation?

Answer 40

cognitive psychologists are only able to infer about mental processes from behaviour observed in research- so it is usually too abstract or theoretical also usually carried out by using artificial stimuli e.g. word lists so results may not generalise to real life example; Bugelski and Alampay rat man study

Question 41

what is the computer analogy often criticised for?

Answer 41

its machine reductionism; ignores the influence of emotion and motivation on the cognitive system and how this affects our ability to process information (over simplifies behaviour) computer model simply expxlains behaviour by input----> process ------->output

Question 42

what is reductionism?

Answer 42

explaining human behaviour as being a result of one factor

Question 43

give an example of why machine reductionism is a limitation of the cognitive approach?

Answer 43

research has shown that human memory may be affected by emotional factors e.g. anxiety on EWT