the cognitive approach

• cognitive approach assumptions 


  • focus on how poeple perceive, store, manipulate and interpret information
  • looks at how internal mental processes influence behaviour
  • studied scientifically (lab experiments, neuroimaging, case studies)
  • inferences made to study internal aspects indirectly
• computer analogy


  human mind is compared to computer and human beings are seen as information processors who absorb info from the outside world, code and interpret it, store it and retrieve it.
• models

  • from their inferences psychologists may either build theoretical or computer models of cognitive processes
  • cognitive psychologists use experimental methods, with emphasis on objective control and replicability
• inference

  making assumptions about processes which cannot be directly observed
• schemas - internal mental processes 


  • 'package' of belifes and expectations on a topic that has come from prior experience - helps us take shortcuts in thinking
  • becomes more sophisticated overtime
  • represents the world and events - building blocks of memory
  • can distort our memories of events and lead to faulty conclusions
  • bugelski and alampay - rat man, sequence of faces / animals
• cognitive approach eval - :) real life application 


  • helps understand how we form impressions of people
  • explains how much of dysfunctional behaviour can be traced back to faulty thinking processes
  • made contributions to AI, robots and CBT
• cognitive approach eval - :) scientific 


  • based on lab experiments (replicable, observable, measureable)
  • reliable and objective
• cognitive approach eval - :( reductionist


  • computer analogy ignores influence of emotion / motivation on cognitive system and its affect on ability to process emotion
  • memory can be effected by emotion - anxiety on eye witness testimonies
• cognitive approach eval - :( external validity


  • only able to infer about mental processes from observed behaviour - so can be abstract and theoretical
  • often carried out using artificial stimuli - digit span test