LS5 - The Cognitive Approach Flashcards
Theoretical Models
Simplified representations based on current research evidence. Models are often represented by boxes and arrows - showing cause and effect.
Computer Models
Input information through senses, code it into memory and combined it with previously stored information e.g. LTM is like a hard-disk and RAM is like working memory - which is cleared and reset when a task has been carried out.
Schema
Mental representations of experience. knowledge and understanding - helping organise/interpret information in the brain e.g how to behave in a restaurant or classroom.
How Are Schema Helpful
They help us predict what will happen based on previous experiences and enable us to process vast amounts of information rapidly, they also prevents us from becoming overwhelmed by environmental stimuli.
How Are Schema Not Helpful
They can distort our interpretation of sensory information - it can also lead to perceptual errors or inaccurate memorise, biased recall as we see what we accept. Negative/faulty schema may have a negative impact on mental health.
Cognitive Approach Strengths
Scientific Methods
Negative Schema
Helps With Therapies
Cognitive Approach Weaknesses
Computer Models
Mechanical Approach
Scientific Method (+)
Therefore there’s high levels of control and cause and affect relationships can be identified however, they can lack ecological validity.
Negative Schema (+)
It’s been used in the development of negative schema which helps explain mental illnesses like depression.
Helps With Therapies (+)
The cognitive approach as helped on the development of therapies in Psychology e.g. CBT aiming to change negative thoughts.
Computer Models (-)
Computer models haven’t acknowledged the important different between the sort of information processing that takes place in the brain and a computer - because computers don’t make mistakes and humans do.
Mechanical Approach (-)
It’s mechanical in the sense that it regards human thinking as processing like the computer leaving little room for the irrationality often seen in emotional behaviours
Cognitive Approach
Argues internal mental processes can be studied scientificatally, therefore it’s investigated behaviours neglected by behaviourists e.g. memory, perception and thinking.
Internal Mental Processes
Operations that occur during thinking e.g. perception, attention, memory, language.
Role Of Schema Study
Bartlett - English pps read Native American folk tale called ‘The War Of The Ghosts’, which was unfamiliar and strange, compared to Britain. When participants recalled it at different intervals, they all changed the story to fit their own schema e.g. ghost details were left out, canoes were changed to cars, bows changed to guns. As more time passed it conformed closer to a British story.
