The Cognitive Approach Part 2 Flashcards
How has the Cognitive Approach revolutionised psychology?
The Cognitive Approach has revolutionised by showing that the mind could be studied scientifically. Objective evidence of human behaviour has been collected using the empirical method via carefully controlled replicable experiments. Inferences from these experiments have helped cognitive psychologists refine and develop theoretical models that explain how internal mental processes work. This has allowed psychologists to successfully apply key features of science (objectivity & replicability) to the study of the mind. This evidence could undermine the behaviourist assumption that the mind cannot be studied scientifically, as in the 1960s cognitive revolution found that the cognitive approach was replacing the behaviourist approach which has been dominating psychology for decades.
What is a limitation of the cognitive approach?
A Lack of Ecological validity is a limitation of the Cognitive Approach. Typical tests for cognitive researchers to take in order to test their theories are by giving the participants artificial tasks. (E.g. memorising lists of random letters) in a lab setting. These specific types of research tasks are accused of lacking ecological validity since the research involves both an artificial setting and task therefore not very generalisable to the real world. This has led to a limitation of the cognitive approach as we can’t be sure that cognitive theories genuinely explain how internal mental processes work outside of the lab.
What is a Schema?
> An internal mental processes that stores information from the mind in organised clusters of information.
Schemas create simplified models of the complex world we live in, and these simplified models generally work well in guiding our behaviour.
Example of Perceptual error?
Seeing a worm as a snake.
An Example of Memory errors?
Remembering that the worm we saw was actually a snake that hissed at us.
An example of Behavioural Errors?
Running away from a worm simply because its superficial resemblance to a snake activated our snake schema.
Outline Schematic Processing.
> It is an extremely fast process which happens automatically and unconcerned ; as soon as we retrieve one piece of information within a scene a, we also retrieve other bits of information within the schema.
Why are Schemas Useful?
They provide an effective way we can process information we retrieve from the environment so that it can be stored and easily retrieved again when we need it.
How can Schemas be problematic?
Schemas can be problematic as once they are activated, they can lead us to make cognitive and behavioural errors
What are the THREE type of errors Schemas can cause us to make?
- Perceptual Errors — where we misinterpret stimuli in our environment.
- Memory errors — remember the wrong thing
- Behavioural errors — doing something because you thought it would do something else.
