The cognitive approach Flashcards
The role of schemas:
A schema (plural schemas or schemata) is a cognitive framework that helps organise and interpret information in the brain.
For example, schemas for specific events are based on expectations of how to behave in different situations (such as in a restaurant or a classroom) or in different roles (e.g. as a guard in a mock prison).
Schemas are useful to us because they allow us to take shortcuts when interpreting the huge amount of information we have to deal with on a daily basis.
However, schemas also cause us to exclude anything that does not conform to our established ideas about the world, focusing instead on things that confirm our preexisting beliefs and ideas.
Schemas help us fill in the gaps in the absence of full information about a person, event or thing.
For example, if we classify food as ‘foreign’ or someone we sit next to on the bus as old, our schemas will tell us what to expect and we act accordingly, regardless of how tasty the food or stimulating our companion might really be.
A consequence of this is that we may develop stereotypes that are difficult to disconfirm, even when faced with new and conflicting information.
THE STUDY OF INTERNAL MENTAL PROCESSES
The cognitive approach studies information processing, i.e. ways in which we extract, store and retrieve information that helps to guide our behaviour.
Many different kinds of mental processes contribute to information processing.
These include selecting important information (attention), using it to solve problems (thinking), storing it in memory and retrieving it as and when it is needed.
The cognitive approach recognises that these mental processes cannot be studied directly but must be studied indirectly by inferring what goes on as a result of measuring behaviour.
This enables cognitive psychologists to develop theories about the mental processes that led to the observed behaviour.
The role of theoretical and computer models:
In cognitive psychology, models are simplified, usually pictorial, representations of a particular mental process based on current research evidence.
Theoretical models In cognitive psychology, models such as the multi-store model of memory or the working memory model are simplified representations based on current research evidence.
Models are often pictorial in nature, represented by boxes and arrows that indicate cause and effect or the stages of a particular mental process.
Models such as the working memory model are often incomplete and informal and are frequently changed, updated and refined.
For example, the working memory model was first proposed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974.
Their initial model consisted of three main sections with a fourth (the episodic buffer) added by Baddeley in 2000.
Computer models:
Refers to the process of using computer analogies as a representation of human cognition.
The development of computers and computer programming led to a focus on the way in which sensory information is ‘coded’ as it passes through the system.
Using a computer analogy, information is inputted through the senses, encoded into memory and then combined with previously stored information to complete a task.
A computer model of memory is a good example. Information stored on the hard disk is like long-term memory and RAM (random access memory) corresponds to working memory
The idea of working memory as a temporary workspace fits the computer model nicely as, like working memory, RAM is cleared and reset when the task being carried out is finished.
THE EMERGENCE OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
An area of psychology dedicated to the underlying neural bases of cognitive functions
neuroscientists are now able to study the living brain, giving them detailed information about the brain structures involved in different kinds of mental processing (cognitive neuroscience).
The use of noninvasive neuroimaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 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.
For example, Burnett et al. (2009) found that when people feel guilty, several brain regions are active, including the medial prefrontal cortex, an area associated with social emotions.
EVALUATION/DISCUSSION
The cognitive approach has many applications:
The cognitive approach is scientific:
The cognitive approach ignores emotion and motivation:
The cognitive approach has many applications:
A strength of the cognitive approach is that it has been applied in many other areas of psychology.
In social psychology, research in social cognition has helped psychologists better understand how we interpret the actions of others, and the cognitive approach to psychopathology has been used to explain how much of the dysfunctional behaviour shown by people can be traced back to faulty thinking processes.
These insights have led to the successful treatment, using cognitive-based interventions, of people suffering from disorders such as depression and OCD.
The cognitive approach is scientific:
Cognitive psychologists’ emphasis on scientific methods is a particular strength of this approach.
The use of the experimental method provides researchers with a rigorous method for collecting and evaluating evidence in order to reach accurate conclusions about how the mind works.
This means that conclusions about how the mind works are based on far more than common sense and introspection, as these can give a misleading picture of mental processes, many of which are not consciously accessi
The cognitive approach ignores emotion and motivation:
A problem for the cognitive approach is that, although it can tell us how different cognitive processes take place, it fails to tell us why they do.
In other words, the role of emotion and motivation has largely been ignored by this approach.
This is not surprising given that approaches that focus on the motivational processes in behaviour (e.g. Freud) largely ignore the cognitive processes involved in behaviour.
The lack of focus on motivational states may be explained by the over-dependence on information processing analogies, as motivation is clearly irrelevant to a computer, but not to a human being.
