cognitive

• the cognitive approach is a direct response to the behaviourist approach as the behaviourist approach ignores the key cognitive processes that take place
• the main mental processes are attention, perception and memory
• what do the mental processes refer to?


  • memory refers to how the mind stores information
  • perception refers to how the mind senses stimulus
  • attention refers to how the mind selects what stimuli to focus on
• the cognitive approach believe the brain is like a computer
• much like a computer, the stimuli in the environment are processed by the brain and then produces the behaviour in response. this simplifies into the information processing model which is...


  input (stimuli) --> processing --> output (behaviour)
• a theoretical model is a simplified diagrammatic representation of an internal cognitive process.
• as an experiment happens, an inference is made to refine(prove/disprove) the theoretical model
• there is a limit to how much information the brain can process at a time
• when mental processes happen one after another, which they often do, it 's called 'in sequence'
• when the brain processes information at the same time the its called 'in parallel'
• a schema is a mental framework that represents something and is used to make sense of the world. often made from experiences
• when an experience matches our schema and is incorporated into out schema, it is assimilated
• when an experience doesn't match the schema, any new information is processed and is accommodated into the schema
• key examples: the war of ghosts
• what happened in the war of ghosts experiment?

  • Bartlett in 1932 conducted an experiment by recruiting English participants and making them 'the war of ghosts' a folktale from the Navajo nation in the US.
  • the story contained new names and ideas about ghosts that the participants were unfamiliar with entirely
  • after, Bartlett asked them to recall the story and noted how many things they got wrong
  • many participants changed details to sound more English and familiar
• what did the war of ghosts conclude?

  that people will change details to better suit their schema