The cognitive approach

• What is information processing?

  The cognitive approach studies information processing.

  • Information processing refers to refers to the way we extract, store, and retrieve information that helps guide our behaviour.
  • Information processing in humans resembles that in computers.
• What does inference mean?

  Going beyond the immediate evidence to make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed.

  • The cognitive approach aims to investigate thought processes, including ideas like memory, attention, language, consciousness and perception.
  • It recognizes that these mental processes cannot be studied by directly but must be studied indirectly by inferring what is going on.
  • But still studies things scientifically using experiments! Typically, will infer what the results of an experiment show
• What does schema theory mean?

  A schema is a set of rules which a person creates, based on previous experience

  • These rules are used to guide behaviour
  • They do not necessarily form part of conscious thought - they can result in automatic behaviour
  • Schemas help to process and make sense of all the information we need to process from what is often an ambiguous world
• What are strengths of schema theory?

  • Helps us predict what will happen in our world based on experiences
  • Enable us to process vast amounts of information rapildly
  • Prevent us from becoming overwhelmed by environment stimuli
• What are limitations of schema theory?

  • Can distort our interpretation of sensory information
  • Can lead to perceptual errors or inaccurate EWT/memories
  • Can caused biased recall/see what we expect
  • Can have a negative impact on mental health (e.g., Beck's triad)
• What are theoretical models?

  Simplified usually pictorial, representations of mental processes based on current research

  • It often uses models to represent how the approach believes a thinking process works – for example the results of some memory tests support the idea of the working memory model. 
  • Models can be further tested and then updated or changed by new research.
• What are computer models?

  The process of using computer analogies as a representation of human cognition

  • Arrival of computers is what sparked cognitive psychology.
  • Psychologists tried to understand the complexities of human cognition by comparing it with something simpler and better understood (e.g., a computer).
  • This is why a lot of computer-based terms are found in the memory topic e.g., encoding, retrieving, processing
• What is cognitive neuroscience?

  Scientific study of brain structures that are responsible for cognitive processes

  • Uses non-invasive neuroimaging techniques, like PET and fMRI scans to help psychologists to understand the brain as they can show what parts of the brain are active in specific circumstances.
• What are applications of cognitive neuroscience?

  • Use of eye-tracking to study visual word processing and reading
  • Using of scanning/imaging techniques to locate different types of memory in different areas of the brain leading to treatment for memory problems
  • Lie detector tests- when people feel guilt several regions of the brain are active
• What is a strength of the cognitive approach?

  Practical application

  • The cognitive approach has explanatory power for abnormalities
  • Beck’s triad explains how a dysfunction attitude to self, world + future may lead to depression.
  • The advantage of this explanation is that they can be used to form treatment.
  • For example, CBT.
  • Therapists will dispute irrational beliefs and replace them with rational ones.
  • The benefits of such treatments is that not only do the give practical help but they also make the patient feel in control rather than dependent on drugs.
• What is another strength of the cognitive approach?

  Scientific

  • The use of experimental methods provides researchers with a rigorous method for collecting evidence to reach accurate conclusions about how the mind works.
  • This means the conclusions about how the mind works are based on far more than common sense and introspection, as they can give a misleading picturing of mental processes.
• What is a limitation of the cognitive approach?

  Cognitive studies are often artificial and lack ecological validity

  • Many studies of cognitive psychology use task that have little in common with participants’ natural everyday experienced.
  • (e.g., experiments in memory use artificial test materials that are relatively meaningless in everyday (like memorising lists of words))
  • Unlikely we can generalise these findings in real-life situations.
  • Therefore, much of the research in cognitive psychology might be criticised as lacking ecological validity.
• What is another limitation of the cognitive approach?

  Ignores motivation and emotion

  • Although it can tell us how different cognitive processes take place, it fails to tell us why they do.
  • In other words, the role of motivation and emotion has been largely ignored.
  • This can likely be explained by the reliance on computer analogies.
  • Computers do not have emotions or motivations but human’s do!
• What is another limitation of the cognitive approach?

  Computer models have limited explanatory power (MACHINE REDUCTIONISM)

  • ‘Storage’, ‘encoding’, ‘storage’ and ‘retrieval’ are borrowed directly from the field of computing.
  • However, there are important differences between the sort of information processing that takes place within a computer program and the information processing that takes place within the human mind.
  • Computers do not make mistakes, nor do they ignore available information, or forget anything that has been stored on their hard drives. Humans do all of these things!