the cognitive approach

Question 1

What is the cognitive approach?

Answer 1

Cognitive psychology is a subfield of psychology that focuses on studying mental processes, including how people perceive, think, remember, learn, solve problems, and communicate. This branch of psychology seeks to understand these mental processes’ underlying mechanisms and how they influence behaviour.

Question 2

What is the cognitive focus?

Answer 2

-The cognitive approach explains human behaviour in terms of internal mental processes.
-This contrasts with learning approaches, which focus on behaviour that can only be observed from the outside.

Question 3

What are the different cognitive processes?

Answer 3

-Memory
-Perception
-Language
-Attention
-Thoughts and beliefs

Question 4

What is the need for the cognitive approach?

Answer 4

-Understanding these mental processes is seen as key for understanding human behaviour
-Researcher Noam Chomsky (1959) explained that language cannot be learned through classical and operant conditioning
-Instead, we build up mental model of the rules of grammar, such as the idea that (in English) we form the past tense by adding -ed to a verb

Question 5

What is cognitive therapy?

Answer 5

-The cognitive approach is linked with an effective approach to therapy for disorders: cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
-CBT tries to solve problems such as anxiety and depression by changing people’s beliefs and habits, and tackling harmful patterns of thinking.

Question 6

What are the assumptions and main ideas of the cognitive approach?

Answer 6

-Internal mental processes should be studied scientifically
-Mental processes (thought, feelings, perceptions) are private and cannot be observed, therefore the cognitive approach makes inferences about how people are thinking

Question 7

What is a schema?

Answer 7

-A schema is a framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. They are developed from experience.

Question 8

What are role schemas?

Answer 8

-Information on how we should act in our particular role e.g. the role of a son or pupil

Question 9

What are self schemas?

Answer 9

-Information we hold on ourself, which affects the decisions we make e.g. not sporty- won’t try for the team

Question 10

What are event schemas?

Answer 10

-Information on how to behave at different events/places

Question 11

What are person schemas?

Answer 11

-Information we hold about other people. This helps us predict their behaviour.

Question 12

How are schemas helpful in learning new knowledge?

Answer 12

-When we learn new knowledge, the relevant schema is activated to help us make sense of the information
-This knowledge affects our perception and understanding, helping us to organise information and recall what we have seen

Question 13

Why is it important that schemas minimise cognitive overload?

Answer 13

-In everyday situations, we don’t have to think about the simpler things too much
-We can also apply schemas to quickly understand new situations

Question 14

What are schemas largely affected by?

Answer 14

-Culture and upbringing
-But they can be adapted in light of new information so are personalised

Question 15

Describe and explain Barlett (1932)

Answer 15

-Read participants ‘War of the Ghosts’
-When retelling the story, he found that they altered details in line with their cultural schemas e.g. boats to schemas
-This demonstrates how schemas can decrease the accuracy of our memory

Question 16

Describe and explain Allport and Postman (1947)

Answer 16

-Showed participants photo of a white man, black man and a razor on a bus
-Most remembered the razor being in the black man’s hand
-Likely due to racial stereotypes at the time of the study
-This shows that schemas don’t always lead us to active recall

Question 17

Describe and explain Breyer and Treyens (1981)

Answer 17

-They had participants wait in an office with office and non-office supplies
-They later recalled more of the office items
-Impact of event schemas

Question 18

Summary of schemas

Answer 18

-Enable us to process information quickly
-Help us to predict what will happen next, based on our experiences

Question 19

What is the computational model?

Answer 19

-When theoretical models are programmed into a computer to test them, they are known as computational models.
-The cognitive approach makes lots of parallels between the human mind and computers.

Question 20

What is the Turing Test?

Answer 20

A test that if passed, indicates that it is possible to tell whether a person is talking to a computer or a person.