The cognitive approach

• What does cognitive mean?

  Mental processes you can't see
• Main assumptions of the cognitive approach

  • human mind actively processes information that comes through different senses
  • Mainly lab experiments - scientific and objective
  • Humans process in a similar way to computers - input - store + retrieve, various programs that determine the response
• How is the human mind studied?

  Indirectly by making inferences about what is going on in the mind by studying behaviour
• What is a schema?

  Like filing cabinets as they organise and contain information

  Help you to recognise environment and make pre-judged opinions e.g. Differences when thinking about Mcdonald's and a posh restaurant
• Schemas definition

  Ways in which we organise and store thoughts and info in our minds which are about ourselves and the world around us

  Developed through experience
• Bugelski - the rat man experiment 


  • ambiguous picture which could look like a man or a rat
  • Ppts who were shown a sequence of faces were more likely to see a man whereas ppts who were shown a sequence of animals were more likely to see a rat
• What is cognitive neuroscience?


  • a combination of cognitive psychologists, cognitive science and neuroscience
  • Considers physiological reasons for thought and behaviour
  • Looking for biological basis for behaviour
• Strengths of the cognitive approach

  • uses scientific and objective methods
  • Uses controlled methods e.g. Lab studies
  • Two areas of cognitive and biological psychology come together (cognitive neuroscience) to enhance the scientific basis of study
  • This makes this way of studying the mind more credible
• Strengths of the cognitive approach

  • can be applied to everyday life (real-world application)
  • The approach has value as it is dominant in psychology today e.g. Treatment of depression, eyewitness testimony
• Weaknesses of the cognitive approach

  • machine reductionism
  • Uses inferences so can occasionally be too theoretical
  • Research often uses artificial stimuli
  • Research may lack external validity