U2-L3: Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
What is Cognitive Psychology?
It considers the mind to be like a complex computer, the cognitive approach analyzes the way people process information and how that dictates their behaviours and emotions. It thinks that the mind is similar to a computer and it takes information, changes it to make sense, and stores it and recalls it when needed.
What did Albert Bandura ask to discover the social-cognitive theory?
Why the same situations could garner different responses from people OR even the same person?
What is the social cognitive theory?
one’s personality takes their motivation, environment, and behaviour into account
What are the 4 Parts of Observational Learning?
Attention: One follows the behaviours of others. They will listen to others perform daily activities/routines.
Retention: One will begin to store (in one’s memory) a mental representation of what they observe. The individual will take note of what worked well, what didn’t, and what the result of the behaviour was.
Reproduction: This is where the conversion of memory into action will take place. Once will practice the behaviour or skill
Motivation: One must be motivated in order to practice and eventually learn the skill. Self, another person or even an event may be one’s source of motivation
What are the strengths of this theory?
It is useful for testing memory loss and selective attention disorders. It is also valuable in understanding child development.
What are the weaknesses of this theory?
Firstly, cognitive psychology emphasizes internal processes, it aims to be strictly scientific, relying on lab experiments to back up any theory. BUT, what happens in controlled laboratory experiments can be difficult to apply to real-life scenarios.
Secondly, It assumes the human mind works like a computer but it does not take into account realities such as people getting tired/emotional and not everyone works like a machine.
Finally, it also ignores the roles of biology and genetics.
What is cognitive bias?
When the mind makes an error in the course of thought processing, it results in a skewed judgement or reaction known as cognitive bias. This can be related to memory or lack of attention. Biases are not always bad - some are an outcome of having to make a quick decision.
What is confirmation bias?
A tendency to search for information that supports our pre-existing beliefs while ignoring information that contradicts those beliefs.
What is cognitive dissonance?
when our actions do not match our beliefs, we tend to create an excuse to relieve our feelings of discomfort
What is the bandwagon effect?
overriding own beliefs in order to go along with what other people are thinking or doing
What is overconfidence?
the tendency to overestimate how accurate our beliefs and judgements are. More confident than correct.
What is belief perseverance?
We tend to cling to our initial beliefs even when given evidence to the contrary.
What is framing?
The way an issue is posed or worded can change our judgements our decisions
