Cognitive

• AO1 - Assumptions

  • The cognitive approach was developed as a reaction

  against the behaviourist stimulus-response approach.

  • For cognitive psychologists, it is the events within a person that must be studied if behaviour is to be fully understood.

  Unlike behaviourists, cognitive psychologists believe that it is possible to study internal mental processes in an objective way and that insight into mental processes may be inferred from behaviour.
• AO1 - Internal mental processes

  • The cognitive approach is concerned with how thinking and knowing shapes our behaviour. 
  • Humans are basically seen as 

  information processors. The main 

  concern of cognitive psychology is 

  how information received from our 

  senses is processed by the brain and 

  how this processing directs how we 

  behave.
• AO1 - Inferences and mental processes

  = Inference means reaching a logical conclusion on the basis of evidence and reasoning. 

  The cognitive approach recognises that mental processes cannot be studied directly but must be studied indirectly by inferring what goes on as a result of measuring behaviour.
• AO1 - Schemas

  A schema is a “packet of information” that helps us organise and interpret information. They are based on our previous experience.

  Babies are born with simple motor schemas for innate behaviours such as grasping and sucking

  Schemas develop and evolve with experience. They become more detailed and sophisticated.
• AO1 - Schemas

  They are useful in  helping us to take shortcuts in thinking.

  But can lead to faulty conclusions & unhelpful behaviour

  (e.g. my schema for driving may be that it is dangerous and difficult and scary so I have panic attacks every time I get behind the wheel)
• The role of schemas

  The mind takes in the impoverished sensory input and matches it to a schema derived from past experience.  The schema is used to ‘fill in the blanks’ in the input and to give it a meaning.  Your ability to ‘see’ what’s there depends on your having an appropriate schema.
• AO1 - Theoretical models

  These are simplified representations of mental processes based on current research evidence. There are often in picture form represented by boxes and arrows that represent flow direction and stages.
• AO1 - The emergence of cognitive neuroscience

  The scientific study of biological structures that underpin cognitive processes.

  Study:

  • Neural processes underlying memory, 

  attention, perception and awareness.

  • Social cognition i.e. the brain regions 

  involved when we interact with others

  How impairments in these regions may characterise different psychological conditions
• AO1 - The emergence of cognitive neuroscience

  It is only in the last 30 years or so, with advances in brain imaging techniques (i.e. fMRI and PET) and experimental methods, that cognitive neuroscience has become one of the most the dominant paradigms in modern psychology.
• AO3 - Evaluation

  (+) Scientific

  The cognitive approach has always employed rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes. This has involved the use of lab experiments to produce reliable, objective data. 

  Also the emergence of cognitive neuroscience has enabled two fields, cognitive and biological, to work together and establish a scientific basis.
• AO3 - Evaluation

  (-) Machine reductionism

  The computer analogy has been criticised as machine reductionism. It ignores the influence of emotion and motivation on the cognitive system and how this affects our ability to process information. 

  For example, research has shown that human memory may be affected by emotional factors such as the influence of anxiety on eye witnesses. 
• AO3 - Evaluation

  (-) Lacks ecological validity

  Cognitive psychologists are only able to infer about mental processes from the behaviour they observe during research. As a consequence, cognitive psychology occasionally suffers from being too abstract and theoretical. 

  Also experimental studies on cognitive processes are often carried out using artificial stimuli such as tests on memory using world lists which may not represent real life.