The Cognitive Approach

Question 1

What has the cognitive approach investigated?

Answer 1

Has investigated those areas of human behaviour that were neglected by behaviourists such as memory, perception and thinking.

Question 2

Give some assumptions of the cognitive approach

Answer 2

• believe it is possible to study internal mental processes in an objective way
• humans are seen as information processors. The main concern of cognitive psychology is how information received from our senses is processed by the brain and how this processing directs how we behave.

Question 3

What are internal mental processes?

Answer 3

Private processes that can’t be observed so cognitive psychologists study them indirectly by making inferences about about what is going on inside people’s minds on the basis of their behaviour.

Question 4

Give some examples of mental processes studied by cognitive psychologists

Answer 4

Perception
Attention
Memory
Language
Thinking
Problem Solving

Question 5

Describe schema

Answer 5

Mental processes that represent an aspect of the world / help us make sense of the world.

Packages of ideas + information developed through experience. They act as a mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information received by the cognitive system.

Question 6

Give an advantage of schemas

Answer 6

Schemas allow us to make short cuts and process information quickly.

Question 7

Give a disadvantage of schemas

Answer 7

Can lead to stereotypical views/template of how things are going to work because you are fast tracking and leaving out details based only on schema.

Question 8

What two models are used to explain inferences / study internal mental processes?

Answer 8

Theoretical Models

Computer Models

Question 9

How do theoretical models make inferences?

Answer 9

By looking at behaviour and examining the thought processes that happen in the mind.

Question 10

What is one important theoretical approach?

Answer 10

The information processing approach - which suggests that info flows through the cognitive system in a series of stages including input, storage and retrieval. This approach is based on the way computers function.

Question 11

Give an example of an internal mental process

Answer 11

The process for memory e.g. the multi store model of memory.

Question 12

What does a computer model involve?

Answer 12

Involves actually programming a computer to see if such instructions produce a similar output in humans. If they do we can infer that similar processes go on in the human mind.

Question 13

What are computer models essential for?

Answer 13

In the creation of “thinking machines” or artificial intelligence.

Question 14

What is cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 14

The scientific study of the influence of brain structures on mental processes.

Question 15

What did cognitive neuroscientists want to do?

Answer 15

Bridge the gap between cognitive science and neuroscience.

Question 16

What have cognitive neuroscientists used to study the influence of brain structures on mental processes?

Answer 16

• mapping brain areas to specific cognitive functions

- imaging techniques

Question 17

What did Paul Broca do?

Answer 17

Had identified how damage to an area of the frontal lobe could permanently impair speech production.

Question 18

What have advancements in brain imaging techniques meant?

Answer 18

Scientists have been able to systematically observe and describe the neurological basis of mental processes. The use of non-invasive neuroimaging techniques (i.e. positron emission tomography PET) helps psychologists to understand how the brain supports different cognitive activities and emotions by showing what parts of the brain become active in specific circumstances e.g. Tulving study (semantic and episodic memory are on opposite sides of the pre-frontal cortex).