the cognitive approach Flashcards
How do they argue internal mental processes should be studied?
in a scientific way- so reductionist approach
what do cognitive psychologists study?
internal mental processes, which are private operations of the mind.
what do psychologists use to study internal mental processes?
we can’t observe how the mind works and so we study them indirectly through inferences by making assumptions about how mind processes information.
why do cognitive psychologists use computer models?
they use them to describe and explain mental processes, computer models refer to programmes on computer that imitate the human mind, do this to see if ideas about info processing are correct.
why do cognitive psychologists use theoretical models?
the use them to describe and explain mental processes. for example, info processing approach suggests info flows through sequence of stages such as multi-store model of memory
what is a schema?
schema’s are packages of information developed through experience. they are a mental framework for incoming information for example we have a schema of school and how we should act there. as we age our schema becomes more detailed.
what is cognitive neuroscience?
it is the scientific study of the influence of brain structures on mental processes.
what have advances in brain scanning technology in the last 20 years meant for cognitive neuroscience in research?
research in memory linked episodic and semantic memory to opposite sides of prefrontal cortex.
also scanning techniques such as PET scans and fMRI
what is a strength of the cognitive approach?
they use scientific and objective methods. this enabled the emergence of cognitive neuroscience, with field of biology and cognition. this is credible scientific method.
what is a limitation of the cognitive psychology?
the approach is machine reductionist as although computer and mind have similarities such as input and output, it still oversimplifies human mind as emotion has been shown to influence accuracy of recall and not factored into computer analogy.
what does the cognitive approach lack?
external validity. they infer mental processes through observations, too theoretical. they also use artifical stimuli such as recall of word list of memory so don’t represent everyday experiences.
