AO1 - Cognitive Approach

• Internal mental processes involve how we process information to guide our behaviour.
• Schemas are cognitive frameworks that help organise and interpret information.
• Theoretical models are simplified representations of mental processes based on research evidence.
• Computer models use computer analogies to represent human cognition, so the mind works like a computer.
• The cognitive approach takes a scientific approach using the experimental method.
• The cognitive approach uses computer models to explain human cognition, but there are important differences between computer processing and human processing.
• The cognitive approach takes a scientific approach, using the experimental method to collect and evaluate evidence.
• The computer analogy suggests that information comes in an input, gets processed, before being stored or deleted as output.
• Memory is the process by which we store and retrieve information.
• Information Processing is the method, in which information is taken in by the senses, analysed and responded to.
• Cognitive processing can be affected by an individual's beliefs and expectations, these are called schemas.
• Schema allow us to process information quickly which is a useful skill.
• Information processing occurs in sequences stages; input, process, output.
• Cognitive neuroscience is the study of the brain structures and how they influence our internal mental processes.
• The field of Cognitive Neuroscience concerns the scientific study of the neural mechanisms underlying cognition and is a branch of neuroscience.
• Methods employed in Cognitive Neuroscience include psychophysical experiments, functional neuroimaging, electrophysiological studies of neural systems and, increasingly, cognitive genomics and behavioural genetics.
• Brain scans such as fMRI's can show brain activity whilst people are undergoing a particular task or activity.