Cognitive approach Flashcards
What is the cognitive process?
The study of internal mental processes
What internal mental processes?
How information is used in the mind, conscious and unconscious thought.
What is a schema?
Mental frameworks, collections of connected basic knowledge about a concept or object built from previous experience with the world.
How do schemas help?
Allow us to engage with the world without being overwhelmed by sensory information, assigning objects to a schema means we don’t have to consciously work out exactly what each object is individually
Predict the future.
How can schemas cause problems?
Leads to inaccurate recall.
Negative schemas can lead to poor mental health.
What is the computer model?
Analogy between operation of a computers central processing unit running software programs and the human brain conducting internal mental processes.
Both systems receive inputs and generate outputs. Information processed through sequence of programmed steps.
What are theoretical models?
Flowchart representations of the steps a specific mental process.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
Aims to scientifically identify and examine the neurological structures and chemical processes in the brain that are linked to internal and mental processes.
What are examples of cognitive neuroscience?
PET
fMRI scans
What are positives of the cognitive approach?
Highly scientific.
What are the negatives of the cognitive approach?
Machine reductionist.
Overly simplistic.
Uses inferences.
