The Cognitive Approach

• What does the spec say?

  The study of internal mental processes, the role of the schema, the use of theoretical and computer model to make inferences about mental processes. The emergence of cognitive neuroscience.
• Assumptions of the Cognitive Approach:

  • Cognitive processes can be, and should be, studied scientifically. Introspection is too unscientific and we should study thought processes in a lab environment.
  • The mind works like a computer. Our senses input information which is processed and leads to output such as language or movement.
  • Unlike behaviourism, cognitive psychologists believe that we must study the cognitive processes that affect how we respond to a stimulus such as reward/punishment.
  • Internal mental processes are private however we can make inferences based on external behaviour.
• Cognitive Approach


  An approach which focusses on how our mental processes affect behaviour.
• Internal Mental Process


  'Private' operations of the mind such as perception and attention between stimulus and response
• Schema 


  A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. They are developed from experience.
• Inference


  The process whereby cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes affect behaviour.
• Cognitive Neuroscience


  The scientific study of the biological structures which underpin cognitive processes.
• Theoretical and Computer Models:

  Theoretical and computer models are used by cognitive psychologists to study mental internal mental processes, e.g. the information-processing model or the multi-store processes. Theoretical models are diagrammatic representations of the steps involved in model (see Memory). Computer models are software simulations of internal mental processes that are created in collaboration with computer scientists.

  
• The information processing approach suggests that information flows through the cognitive system in set stages which include input, storage and retrieval.
• The mind is also compared to a computer by suggesting that there are similarities in the way that the information is processed for example, there is a central processing unit (the brain,) information is coded so that it becomes a useable format and there are stores which hold information.
• This is a 3 stage process of cognitive approach:

  Input: This comes from the environment via the senses and is encoded by the individual.

  Processing: Once the information is encoded it can be processed (e.g. as a schema)

  Output: A behavioural response occurs once information is processed.