CA AO1

• What does the cognitive approach argue

  that internal mental processes can and should be studied scientifically
• what did the CA investigate

  the areas of human behaviour that were neglected by behaviourists ( memory , perception and thinking ) are private processes and cant be observed

  • so cog psychologists study them indirectly by making inferences about whats going on in peoples minds in the basis of their behaviour
• schema

  a mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing which are developed from experience
• example of schema


  • chair - something with legs you can sit on
  • thats a package of info learned through experience that helps you to respond to the object appropriately
• what are babies born with

  • simple motor schema for innate behaviours
  • e.g. grasping and sucking
• what happens to our schema as we get older

  • schema becomes more detailed and sophisticated
  • adults developed mental representations for everything from concept of psych to schema
• how is schema useful


  • helps us to process info quickly
  • this is useful as a mental shortcut that prevents us from being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli
• however schema may also....

  distort our interpretations of sensory information leading to perceptual errors
• what did CP use to help them understand internal mental processes

  theoretical and computer models
• theoretical model


  • its abstract
  • its the information processing approach
  • suggests that information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages
  • include input , storage and retrieval - multi store model
  • based on way computers functions
• computer models


  • its concrete
  • involves programming a computer to see if such instructions produce a similar output to humans
  • if they do we suggest that similar processes are going on in the human mind
  • such computational models of the mind have proved useful in the development of thinking machines or AI
• cognitive neuroscience


  • scientific study of the influence of the brain structures on mental processes