cognitive pt1

• what does cognitive mean?


  The term cognitive means mental processes. This approach focuses on how our mental processes (thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect our behaviour.
• assumptions of this approach-


  -internal mental processes should be studied scientifically

  -mental processes are private and cannot be observed, therefore cognitive approach makes inferences about how people are thinking.
• What is a schema?

  a framework of beliefs and expectation that influence cognitive processing. They are developed from experience.
• Role schema=


  Information on how we should act in our particular role e.g being a son or daughter.
• Self schema=


  Information we hold on ourself which affects the decisions we make
• event schemas=


  Information about how to behave at different events/places
• person schema=


  Information we hold about other people. This helps us predict their behaviour.
• what do schemas help us do?


  process lots of information quickly, interpret the world us and navigate novel situations.
• Example of schemas..

  Allport and Postman(1947)- showed a photo

  -most remembered the razor being in the Black man's hand

  This was due to racial stereotypes at the time of the study. Stereotypes are a type of schema. This shows us that schemas don't always lead to accurate recall.