cognitive approach

• Behaviour is influenced by thoughts that can be both conscious and unconscious – these internal mental processes mediate between the stimulus and response. These internal processes can and should be studied scientifically and objectively.
• Internal mental processes studied by cognitive psychologists include perception, attention, memory, language, thinking, and problem-solving.
• Humans are information processors because our internal mental processes extract, store and retrieve information that helps to guide our behaviour. The processing by humans can be compared to that of a computer.
• Models are used to create testable theories about mental processing and these can be studied scientifically.
• However, we can’t study the processes directly because they are ‘private’ so they’re studied indirectly, and inferences are made on the basis of observed behaviour.
• Cognitions and biological processes can be integrated leading to cognitive neuroscience as a way of understanding human behaviour.
• • A schema is a cognitive (mental) framework of beliefs and expectations that help us to organise and interpret information in the brain. They are developed from experience and help us understand new information. They are used as a ‘reference point’ to help us to behave appropriately.​
  • They are effectively ‘packages’ of ideas and information that are learned though experience.
• • Babies are born with simple motor schema e.g. a grasping schema. This would include moving a hand and shaping it around an object in coordination with what they see.​
  • As we get older (and have more experience), our schema become more detailed and sophisticated e.g. schemas for psychology, what happens in a dentist etc.
• Schemas – good or bad?​

  • Good – they help us to process lots of information quickly which is useful as a sort of mental short-cut that stops us being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli.
  • Bad – they exclude anything that doesn’t fit our established ideas of the world. Therefore, we may develop stereotypes that are difficult to disconfirm, even with new and conflicting information. ​
  • They can distort our interpretations of sensory information (because we expect to see, hear etc. something in particular) leading to perceptual errors
• Behaviourists are not interested in what happens in between stimulus and response.  They don’t think you need to know.
• Social Learning Theorists say that mediational processes take place within the organism between S and R. 

  Therefore, you do need to know about the person’s mental processes.
• Cognitive psychologists extend the SLT idea and say that our behaviour is determined by the way we process information taken in from our environment and this mediates between the S and R.
• Similarities to SLT

  • Behaviour approach - Role of reinforcement, Behaviour learnt.
  • Cognitive approach - •Role of cognitive processes, Focus on human behaviour rather than animals
• Differences to SLT

  • Behaviourist approach - •Distinction between learning and performance in SLT, while they are the same  for behaviourism, Animals are not seen as the same as humans in SLT
  • Cognitive approach - •Observational learning is not part of the cognitive approach. The cognitive approach focuses more on cognitive processes, e.g. schemas. SLT still tends to focus on external behaviour, while the cognitive approach is interested in internal processes
• Using laboratory experiments

  • Strength: Scientific and objective methods lead to controlled experiments and reliable results. This means that the study of the mind has established a credible, scientific basis.
• Using laboratory experiments

  • Weaknesses: Direct observation of internal mental processes is not possible. So, inferences have to be made which can be mistaken.

  ◦The tasks in laboratory experiments are rarely how the behaviour usually occurs (e.g. memory). This is because the studies are designed to make measurement possible. Therefore, the researcher collects data only related to mental processing in experimental conditions. Thus, research on cognitive processes may lack external validity.
• Psychology models

  • A (theoretical) model is a simplified, usually pictorial, representation of a particular mental process. They often include boxes and arrows to show cause and effect or the stages of a particular mental process.
  • It is based on available evidence e.g. from lab experiments.
  • A model provides us with an analogy of how mental processes work.
• A computer model is when computer analogies are used as a representation of human cognition, suggesting that there is a similarity in the way information is processed.
• Central processing unit

  • brain
• • Coding – to turn info into a useable format
• Stores – to hold different chunks of information
• Output – observable behaviour
• input - From the environment via the senses
• Processing/Storage - Info is coded as neural connections in the brain and processed e.g. using schema. It is combined with previously stored information. Information stored on a hard disk is like LTM and RAM (temporary workspace that is reset when the task is finished) is like working memory.
• Output- Observable behaviour
• Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of brain/neurological structures, mechanisms, processes, chemistry that are responsible for cognitive/mental/thinking processes.