Cognitive approach

• Cognitive approach suggests the way info is processed in our brain guides our behaviour.
• Attention - selecting important info from all incoming information thru our senses
• thinking - using important info to solve problems
• storing - storing info in memory
• retrieving info from memory when needed
• mental processes can’t be studied directly so we must infer make inferences ab what’s happening in the mental processes thru measuring behaviour which can be studied directly.
• schema - a ‘package’ of beliefs and expectations - cognitive framework - that form thru experience and help to make sense of new info and predict things that may happen
• schemas affect behaviour
• schemas are useful by helping to taker shortcuts in thinking and filling in gaps when we don’t have all the info ab someone but can cause us to develop stereotypes that are hard to disconfirm even if we have new info
• schemas can cause confirmation bias - we focus on things that confirm our existing beliefs ab the world and ignore things that dont
• schemas can cause inaccurate EWT [Eye Witness Testimonies] - expectations of a crime lead to inaccurate reporting.
• negative schema can be detrimental to mental health
• Person schema - schema ab attributes of an individual which helps us form the personality we attribute to them.
• event schema - ways we typically approach tasks and problems.
• role schema - contains role expectations - how we expect someone in a certain role to behave.
• self-schema - how you perceive yourself
• 1 strength of cognitive approach is it has useful applications :used to explain dysfunctional behaviour of ppl with mental illnesses due to faulty thinking processes, led to successful treatment using cognitive based therapy for ppl with illnesses (depression), therefore cognitive approach has been used to improve lives.
• Theoretical models - representations of internal mental processes based on research (MSM and WMM)
• computer models - explain the mind’s information processing
• models explain unobservable behaviour
• Assumptions of computer models :

  • brain processes info like a computer
  • central processing unit - brain
  • coding - turn into into useable format
  • stores - to hold different chunks of info
• weakness - human info processing is not exactly same as a computer, humans r more likely to make mistakes whereas computers do not make them, therefore it is a weakness bc computer models may not totally be appropriate for explain human thought and behaviour.
• weakness - machine reductionist, it focuses on how diff processes work but not why, explained thru emotion and motivation which is ignored by cognitive approach, therefore it doesn’t focus on motivation bc it focuses sm on computers which don’t need motivation whereas humans do.
• Hypothesis - testable prediction
• null hypothesis - predicts there’s no effect
• Cognitive neuroscience - scientific study of the influence of brain structure on mental processes
• Live brain can be studied through non-invasive neuroimaging techniques such as rMRI - allow scientists to systematically observe neurological basis of mental processes.