The Cognitive Approach

• Assumptions of the Cognitive Approach


  • Cognitive psychology should be studied SCIENTIFICALLY
  • The mind is argued to work similarly to a computer
  • Behaviour is largely explained through INTERNAL MENTAL PROCESSES
• What are Schemas?


  • Helps organise information that is already in the brain.
  • They maintain behaviour in familiar situations, and how to behave towards particular objects
  • schemas ‘fill the gaps’ for us. This helps us to know how to behave in any unfamiliar situation
• Positives of Schemas


  • Schemas SAVE TIME because they help you to ORGANISE INFORMATION and help you to RETRIEVE IT
• Negatives of Schemas


  • When we ‘fill in the gaps’, we can do this incorrectly
  • When given new information that contradicts an existing schema, we are likely to ignore this.
• What are Computer Models?


  INPUT ————> PROCESS ——————> OUTPUT

  senses accessing a behaviour

  schema
• What is Inference?


  • Inference is the process of drawing conclusions about general patterns of behaviour from specific observations.
  • We can observe that on average when asked to remember a list of words and recall straight away, people on average remember 5-9 words.

  —-> Example of inference in this care is thar short term memory has a limited capacity.
• Strengths of the Cognitive Approach


  • Has useful applications- treat depression through CBT
  • Scientific- Goodwin Et Al (1969) carried out in controlled conditions- strong internal validity
• Weaknesses of the Cognitive Approach


  • too scientific- research lacks ecological validity, not generalisable to the real world.
  • Limitations of comparing computers and human thought processes- computers don‘t feel emotion/ have human error
• What is Cognitive Neuroscience?


  the emergence of cognitive neuroscience:

  • Neuroscientists are now able to study the LIVING BRAIN
  • Gives detailed information about brain structures involved in different kinds of mental processing

  Practical Application- memory:

  • with imaging techniques, we can locate “problem areas” in the brain
  • we can now see that different types of memory are located in different areas in the brain
  • This allows us to create treatments for memory problems
• What is an MRI?


  (magnetic resonance imaging)

  A technique for measuring brain activity. It works by detecting changes in blood oxygenation and flow that indicate increased neural activity.

  This creates an activation map.
• What is Post Mortem?


  (oldest method- After death examination)

  ways of examining brains of people who have shown particular psychological abnormalities prior to their death in an attempt to establish the possible neurological cause of this behaviour.
• What is a PET scan?


  (positron emitting tomography)

  An imaging technology in which substance containing positron emitting isotopes are introduced into the body allowing the precise location of physiological processes by detection of the gamma rays produced by the isotopes.
• What is an EEG?


  (electroencephalogram)

  A method of recording changes in the electrical activity of the brain using electrodes attached to the scalp.