The Cognitive Approach Flashcards
What is the cognitive approaches aim ?
The scientific study of mental processes rather than the observable behaviour.
What do cognitive psychologists make when observing mental processes ?
Since mental processes are ‘private’ and cannot be observed, cognitive psychologists study them indirectly by making INFERENCES about what it going on in the patients mind from a basis of their behaviour.
What is the idea of a schema in the cognitive approach ?
Shema are packages of information developed through experience. They act as a mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information received by the cognitive system. They develop as we get older through developing experience.
What does the computer model suggest about the cognitive approach ?
It can explain certain mental processes. Computer models refer to programmes that can be run on a computer to imitate the human mind. By running theses psychologists can test their ideas about information processing.
What is neuroscience in the cognitive approach ?
Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of the influence of brain structures on mental processes. With advances in brain scanning technology, scientists have been able to describe the neurological basis o mental processing.
Name one strength of the cognitive approach AO3 ?
P - One strength is the cognitive approach uses scientific and objective methods.
E - Cognitive psychologists have always employed controlled methods of study e.g. lab studies. Biology and cognitive psychology come together to enhance the scientific basis of study.
E - This means that the study of the mind has established a credible, scientific basis.
Name another strength of the cognitive approach AO3 ?
P - Another strength of the approach is the application to everyday life.
E - The approach is dominant in everyday psychology and has been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts. AI Causes the treatment of depression to improve according to eye witness testimony.
E - This supports the value of the cognitive approach.
Name one limitation of the cognitive approach AO3 ?
P - One limitation is that the approach is based on machine reductionism.
E - Although, there is similarities between the computer model and the human mind it has still been criticised. Emotion and motivation have been shown to influence accuracy of recall e.g. eye witness accounts. These factors are not considered within the computer analogy.
E - This suggests that machine reductionism may weaken the validity of the cognitive approach.
Name another strength of the cognitive approach AO3 ?
P - One strength is the approach consists of soft determinism.
E - The approach recognises that our cognitive system operates within certain limits like our genetics, but we are free to make decisions before responding to a stimulus. In contrast to the behaviourist approach where they state that we are passive to the environment and we have no free will.
E - This suggests that the approach takes a more flexible middle-ground position and is more in line with our subjective sense of free will.
Name one strength of cognitive neuroscience AO3 ?
P - One strength is that is demonstrates the role of experience in shaping the brain thereby showing biology is not destiny.
E - Maguire et al found that taxi drivers grey matter in their posterior hippocampus was larger than a control group due to studying for the ‘knowledge test’ learning 25,000 London routes.
E - Cognitive neuroscience supports soft determinism as experience of learning the knowledge routes enhanced spatial and navigational skills, in this case the structure and function of the brain.
What is research to support cognitive neuroscience ?
Research into memory that has linked the episodic and semantic memories to opposite sides of the pre-frontal cortex in the brain through use of PET scans - Tulving 1994 - this study provides research that identifies the neurological basis of mental processes.
