The cognitive Approach Flashcards
What is the Cognitive approach?
The term ‘cognitive’ has come to mean ‘mental processes, so this approach is focused on how our mental processes (e.g thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour.
What are internal mental processes?
‘Private’ operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response.
What are Schema?
A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. They are developed from experience.
What is inference?
The process whereby cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
The scientific study of those biological structures that underpin cognitive processes.
What are models?
A way of representing an abstract, un observable concept/process in a concrete, testable way.
What is being objective?
Not open to interpretation
What is soft determinism?
Behaviour has a cause, but we can make some decisions about whether to behave that way or not. So while behaviour may be predictable, it is not inevitable.
What is machine reductionism?
Using a narrow, mechanistic analogy to explain complex human functioning.
What is ecological validity?
The extent to which findings from artificial laboratory research can be used in real life.
What are the assumptions?
1.thoughts and other mental processes cause behaviour. Processes such as memory, language, decision-making, perception and so on all need to be fully understood because it is processes such as these that cause us to behave the way we do.
