Cognitive approach

• mental processes

  1. perception
  2. attention
  3. memory
  4. thinking
  5. problem solving
• Schemas 


  cognitive/mental framework to organise/ interpret information in memory

  based on experience

  cognitive processing affected by beliefs/ expectations
• theoretical models (Atkinson & Shifrin)

  1. environmental stimulus
  2. sensory register
  3. attention
  4. stm
  5. maintenance rehearsal
  6. ltm
  7. retrieval
  8. stm
• Cognitive neuroscience A01


  influence of brain structures on mental processing

  Broca found that damage to frontal lobe impairs speech production
• Double dissociation


  when two patients show mirror image of impairment
• Information processing model

  mental processes must be studies indirectly through inference

  1. attention
  2. thinking
  3. storage
  4. retrieval
• theoretical and computer models 


  analogies of computers to explain how sensory information is coded

  1. input
  2. processing
  3. output
• double dissociation example 


  Scoville and Milner

  Shallace and Warrington

  shows LTM and STM are in different areas
• weaknesses

  • lacks ecological validity
  • ignores emotion and motivation
  • difference between humans and computers
  • oversimplistic
• strengths

  • scientific
  • practical applications
  • used to treat depression and phobias using CBT