AO1

• What is psychology?

  The scientific study of the mind, behaviour and experience
• What is introspection?


  The first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thought, images and sensations.
• Describe the discoveries of Wilhem Wundt

  • Opened first psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany (1879)
  • Used introspection: participants reflected on cognitive processes and described them
  • Aim: to document/describe the nature of human consciousness (structuralism)
• What are the weaknesses of introspection?

  • Participants recalling own thoughts = not scientific
  • Conscious thoughts can't be observed/measured, more empirical methods should be used
• What control methods make introspection more scientific

  Same standardised instructions given to all participants =replicable
• What is the Cognitive approach?

  An approach focused on how our mental processes affect behaviour
• What are the assumptions of the cognitive approach?

  • Internal mental processes can be studied scientifically
  • Investigates areas ignored by behaviourists
  • Study them indirectly, making inferences of what happens in people's minds based on their behaviour
• What are inferences?

  To draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour
• What are internal mental processes?

  ‘Private’ operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response.
• How are theoretical & computer models used in the cognitive approach?

  • Study internal processes, includes info processing approach = info flows through cognitive system in stages (input/storage/retrieval)
  • Computer models: mind likened to computer in how info is processed
  • Use concepts of central processing unit/coding/stores
• What is schema?

  • Collections of ideas and information formed through experience.
  • Schemata serve as mental frameworks for interpreting incoming information.
  • Helps process information efficiently, acting as mental shortcuts
  • Can distort sensory information interpretation.
• What is cognitive neuroscience?

  The scientific study of biological structures that influence cognitive processes
• What did Broca discover in the 1860s?

  Used brain mapping to identify that damage to frontal lobe could permanently impair speech production
• How did cognitive neuroscience begin to emerge

  • Advances in brain scanning techniques = systematically observe neurological basis of mental processes
  • Useful in establishing neurological basis of mental disorders
  • Cognitive neuroscience focus expanded to computer models = mapping techniques
  • Future application: analyse brain wave patterns to determine lies