cognitive approach

• what does the cognitive approach focus on?

  studying mental processes and how these effect our behavior
• what does making an inference mean?


  observing behaviour and using logic to draw a conclusion about what mental processes caused that behaviour
• why must inferences be made in the cognitive approach?


  because mental processes can’t be seen or studied directly
• what are the five mental processes?


  attention, language, thinking, memory, perception
• what is a schema?


  a cognitive structure/mental shortcut that serves as a framework for ones knowledge about the world
• what are the negatives about schemas?


  •reliance can lead to perceptual errors & distortion of information which leads to a reconstruction of memories •can result in inaccurate stereotypes •can narrow thinking
• what do schemas do?

  they help people organise their knowledge of the world and understand new info
• what is an object schema for?


  understand/interpret inanimate objects
• what is a person schema for?


  understand specific people
• what’s a social schema for?


  understand how to behave in different social situations
• what’s an event schema for?


  encompass the sequence of actions/behaviours one expects during a given event
• whats a self schema?


  understand ourselves, focusing on what we know about who we are
• what’s a role schema?


  encompasses our expectations of how a person in a specific social role will behave
• why are schemas useful?


  •they provide a ‘mental shortcut’ when processing info

  •help us interpret incoming info quickly and effectively so we don’t become overwhelmed

  •play a role in memory as they ’fill in gaps‘ instead of having to memorise info
• what are computer models?


  software simulations of internal mental processes which have been tested in collaboration with computer scientists to help us study/understand these processes
• what are theoretical models?


  abstract representations of how information processing works
• how is the mind similar to a computer?


  output, input, processing
• what are the three assumptions of the cognitive approach?


  •we should focus on internal mental processes like memory

  •behaviour can be studied indirectly by observing behaviour and making inferences about what’s happening in the mind

  •the minds similar to a computer in terms of output, input and processing
• what is cognitive neuroscience?

  the study of the biological basis of thought processes and looks at the brain areas responsible for different cognitive functions
• what is cognitive neuroscience a mix of?


  the cognitive and biological approaches
• what techniques does cognitive neuroscience use?


  PET scans and fMRI scans
• what do neuro imaging techniques provide us with?


  an active image of the living brain and reveals which parts of the brain are being used while an individual takes part in a particular mental process
• what do PET scans measure?


  levels of radioactive glucose
• what do fMRI scans measure?


  use magnetic waves to measure changes in iron/blood flow
• what do the colours on a PET scan mean?


  red = high activity

  blue = low activity
• what does the cerebelium control?


  procedural memory - skills / how to do things/actions. they’re recalled without conscious effort
• what does the temporal lobe control?


  semantic memory - facts/knowledge of the world
• what does the frontal lobe control?


  episodic memory - events and retrieving info from semantic memory and encoding new aspects into episodic memory
• what does the hippocampus control?

  learning, memory, visual processing and emotion
• when did this approach emerge?

  1960s