Lesson 5 - The Cognitive Approach

Question 1

What are inferences?

Answer 1

Assumptions about processes and behaviour that cannot be directly observed, both consciously and subconsciously

Question 2

What are the key features of the Cognitive approach?

Answer 2

• attention
• memory
• how people perceive, store, manipulate and interpret information

Question 3

What is the information processing model?

Answer 3

Information that is received through the senses is processed by the brain

Question 4

What are some assumptions of the cognitive approach?

Answer 4

• attention
• thinking
• store information in memory
• Retrieve information
• Psychologists cannot study cognitive processes directly, they indirectly investigate using influences

Question 5

What are schemas?

Answer 5

Schemas are packets of information, cognitive frameworks or ideas that develop through experience and expectations on how we should behave

Question 6

How can schemas help quickly organise and interpret information?

Answer 6

They act as a ‘shortcut’ by filling in the gaps about information that might be missed e.g there is a schema about what to expect when going to a restaurant

Question 7

What is a role schema?

Answer 7

A schema about behaviour that is expected from someone in a particular role, e.g a librarian

Question 8

What is an event schema?

Answer 8

A schema about what to expect from an event, e.g a birthday party

Question 9

What are some positive evaluation points of the Cognitive approach?

Answer 9

• It has many different applications in different areas of Psychology e.g social cognitions can help psychologists understand how to form impressions of other people, might also explain the development of faulty negative thinking (which can lead to the development of phobias)

-It uses scientific methods such as lab experiments, so there is a high level of control, making the research objective and scientific

-The cognitive approach has influenced the development of cognitive neuroscience (the influence of brain structure on mental processes) and this is only possible because of the cognitive approach model

-Helped to devise CBT, so very useful and beneficial for therapies or treatments

Question 10

What are some negative evaluation points of the cognitive approach?

Answer 10

-Focuses heavily on internal mental processes, which are ignored by the biological approach (covers genetics, biochemistry etc)

-Does not give a full picture about the inner workings of the mind, as inferences still must be used (but these could be based off of limited or inaccurate information)

-Soft determinism theory goes against the cognitive approach, and there is research evidence to prove that depression might be genetic (which shows that Biology does have an impact on cognition)

Question 11

What was Bartlett’s 1932 experiment into the role of schemas?

Answer 11

• Conducted in a lab setting
• English participants asked to read a Native American story called ‘The War of the Ghosts’
• Had an unusual sentence structure and unfamiliar language
• Participants had to read the story and recall after a certain period of time

Question 12

What did Bartlett find was the result of his ‘War of the Ghosts’ experiment into the role of schemas?

Answer 12

• All of the English participants changed some of the language to fit their own schema
• E.g ‘canoes’ was changed to ‘cars’ and ‘bows and arrows’ changed to ‘guns’, ghosts were left out
• People remembered less as time went on
• In conclusion, people use their own schemas to help remember information - dependent on culture

Question 13

What are some positive evaluation points for the ‘War of the Ghosts’ experiment?

Answer 13

• Conducted in a lab setting, which means that the independent variable can be closely controlled, making the results highly reliable
• This study confirms how important schema theory is when investigating internal mental cognitive processes - because people record information with their own schema, eyewitness testimonies could be unreliable if people have distorted their memories with their schemas

Question 14

What are some negative evaluation points for the ‘War of the Ghosts’ experiment?

Answer 14

• Participants may have been affected by demand characteristics (guessing the aim of the study and changing behaviour as a result) which could render the results invalid
• The sample could be seen as biased because only English participants were used, which means we cannot generalise the results to other parts of the world