Paper 2 - Cognitive Area Flashcards
What are the key assumptions of the cognitive area ?
The cognitive area assumes that internal mental processes determine our behaviour.
Cognitive psychologist view the mind as working like computer with inputs and the outputs is our behaviour (the computer metaphor).
It involves topics such as memory, perception, attention and language
What is the computer metaphor ?
Cognitive psychologist view the mind as working like computer with inputs and the outputs is our behaviour.
A computer encodes sensory information and chnages it to store it. Then the output (recall) of the information is changed.
What are the applications of the cognitive area ?
Artificial intelligence - creating machines which can solve problems in the same way the human mind does.
Therapies - Cognitive behavioural therapy aims to chnage thinking to change behaviour.
Improving memory - Asking eyewitnesses to recall information from beginning to end, end to beginning and from different perspectives to access memory stored in different places in the brain.
What are the similarities of the cognitive area ?
Similar to the biological area - investigating mental processes and brain activity to understand the person.
Controlled lab experiments are similar to the biological area.
Reductionism is similar to the social area.
determinism is similar to the biologica area.
What are the differences of the cognitive area ?
Different to the social area as it considers what is going on inside the brain rather than just the behaviours.
Lab experiments are different to the individual differences area.
Reductionism is different to the holism of the developemntal area.
Hard eterminism is different to the developemntal area.
What are the strengths of the cognitive area ?
Well controlled and replicable lab research as they are scientific and isolate variables to establish a cause and effect relationship. Allows us to understand what causes certain behaviours and can help develop therapies to apply in real life, for example cognitive behavioural therapy.
What are the weaknesses of the cognitive area ?
Lab research lacks external validity so they cannot be generalised beyond the conditions.
It is a reductionist view to compare human thinking to computers. it denies any emotional contributions - machine reductionism.
Biological determinism - ignores freewill and a personal effort to remember information.
What are the paired studies in the cognitive area and their main focus ?
Loftus and Palmer and Grant et al - memory
Moray and Simons and Chabris - attention
Which side of the…
nature/nurture
situational/individual
determinism/freewill
reductionism/holism
debate does the cognitive area relate to ?
Nature and nurture
Situational and individual
determinism and freewill
(reductionism)
What is cognitive neuroscience ?
Linking neurological functions to cognitive language, thinking and self control.
How does the cognitive area give both nature and nurture reasons for behaviour ?
The cognitive area concludes that our behaviour is influenced by learning and experience (nurture), but also by some of our brains’ innate capacities as information processors e.g., language and memory (nature). For example in Grant et al’s study on context-dependent memory , the participants had better recall in environments that they had previously studied in (nurture), however, the results may have been due to the participants personality (nature), for example if they had a higher IQ than other participants this may explain why they obtained a high score in the matching conditions.
How does the cognitive area give evidence for situational and individual reasons for behaviour ?
The cognitive area concludes that environmental cues causes behaviour. For example, in Loftus and Palmers study on eyewitness testimony, the verb change in the vital question caused the participants perception of a previous event to change.
However, the cognitive area also acknowledges the innate neurological process within a human such as IQ and memory levels. For example in Grant et al’s study on context dependent memory, participants may have low memory levels causing their answers to be incorrect.
How does the cognitive area give evidence for determinism and freewill causes of behaviour ?
The cognitive area concludes that behvaiour can be caused by learning and experience (determinism) for example, Grant et al’s study on context dependent memory, the participants scores was determined by their environmental conditions, matching or mismatching conditions.
However, the cognitive area also recognises innate neurological processes like memory, some participants may have had better memory levels, causing them to obtain higher scores.
How is the cognitive area a reductionism view ?
The cognitive area assumes that humans take in sensory information, the brain processes the information, then it generates a response. This is referred to as machine reductionism. It reduces humans to machine like processes.
What is operant conditioning ?
Behaviourist perspective
We learn through consequences.
( positive/ negatove reinforcement and punishment )
