Cognitive Approach

• Cognitive psychology focuses on how people perceive, store, manipulate and interpret information.
• Many different kinds of mental processes contribute to information processing: selecting important information (attention), using it to problem solve (thinking), storing it in memory, retrieving when needed.
• The cognitive approach is the study of internal mental processes. The main areas include: Inferences, theoretical and computer models and schemas.
• Inference

  Mental processes cannot be studied directly. They are private operations of the mind: memory perception and thinking. Therefore, we must study these indirectly through inferring what goes on as a result of measuring the observed behaviour.
• Inference

  An inference in terms of psychology is a logical conclusion about mental processes based on evidence/behaviour/outcomes.
• Inference

  Inferences are made based is what is being measured- going beyond the immediate evidence to make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed.
• Inference- Multi-store model of memory

  A) Sensory information

  B) Attention

  C) Short-term memory

  D) Rehearsal loop

  E) Long-term memory

  F) Retrieval

  G) Transfer

  
• Inference: Baddeley's study

  Baddeley gave participants one of four word lists to learn. The lists contained words that were either acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar, or semantically dissimilar. They then either recalled the words immediately (research into STM) or after 20 minutes (LTM).
• Inference: Baddeley's study outcomes

  Participants did worse recalling acoustically similar words in STM which suggested that STM encodes by sound. Participants did worse recalling semantically dissimilar words in LTM which suggested that LTM encodes by meaning.
• Inference: Peterson & Peterson study

  Peterson & Peterson researched duration of STM. Participants had to recall meaningless three letter trigrams (e.g THG, FQZ) at different intervals (3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds). To prevent rehearsal, participants had to count back from a specific number in increments of 3 or 4 until asked to recall the trigram.
• Inference: Peterson & Peterson study outcomes

  They found that after 3 seconds, 80% of the words were recalled accurately but after 18 seconds, only 10% were recalled accurately. This meant that the duration of STM is approximately 18 seconds. And by preventing rehearsal, information cannot be transferred to LTM. Therefore providing further support to the MSM.
• Theoretical Models

  Models are used to provide simplified representations of mental processes based on current evidence:

  • MSM (Atkinson & Shiffin)
  • WMM (Working Memory Model- Baddeley & Hitch).
• Theoretical Models

  They are often in pictorial form and use arrows to indicate cause and effect or the stages of a mental process.
• Theoretical Models

  Cognitive psychologists often appreciate that these are informal and incomplete- they welcome refinement.

  E.g. WMM- episodic buffer was added to the model in 2000, replaced STM in MSM.
• Computer Models

  The development of computers lead cognitive psychologists to consider comparisons between computers and mental processing. E.g. The way information is 'coded' as it passes through the 'mental system'.
• Computer Models

  E.g. RAM links well to working memory- working memory is a temporary workspace (similar to RAM) and it is cleared and reset when the task is completed. LTM is the hard disk.
• Schema

  Schemas are cognitive frameworks that are used to organise knowledge and experience of the world into generic 'templates'. These are used to make sense of objects, situations and people we encounter.
• Schema

  They tell us what to expect and how to behave in certain situations or roles.
• Schema

  The mind can take in the impoverished sensory input and matches it to a schema derived from past experience. The schema is used to 'fill in the blanks' in the input and give it a meaning. Your ability to -see- what's there depends on your having an appropriate schema.
• Schema: Useful

  Schema help us to predict what will happen in our world based on our experiences.

  They enable us to process vast amounts of information rapidly.

  They prevent us from becoming overwhelmed by environmental stimuli.
• Schema: Not useful

  Schema can distort our interpretation of sensory information.

  Negative/faulty schema may have a negative impact on mental health.

  Schemas are like stereotypes, and alter mental processing of incoming information: their role in eyewitness testimony can be negative as what someone expects to see may distort their memory of what actually happened.