cognitive approach

• what is the cognitive approach?


  The cognitive approach is a psychological perspective that focuses on how people think, perceive, and process information. it is more scientific
• what is a criticism of the cognitive approach?

  • it isn’t directly observable
  • environmental changes may not automatically lead to a change in the person
• basic assumptions of the cognitive approach

  • the human mind actively processes info that comes through different senses
  • cognitive processes mediate between stimulus and response
  • mental processes can be studied scientifically using carefully controlled experiments
  • mainly uses laboratory experiments
  • human info processing is similar to computers
• what is a theoretical model - cognitive approach

  • simplified, diagram representations of a cognitive process - these are abstract
  • info flows through a sequence3 of stages that include input, storage and retrieval
• what is a computer model cognitive approach

  • refers to programmes that can be run on a computer to imitate the human mind
  • by running such a programme psychologists can test their idea about info processing
• what is a schema?

  A schema is a cognitive framework or mental structure that helps organize and interpret information
• a schema is developed through experience
• schemas allow us to predict what’s coming next
• what was the rat man experiment - cognitive approach bugelski

  • group 1 shown faces - opens face schemas
  • group 2 shown animals - opens animal schemas
  • group 1 are more likely to see a man when presented with the ambiguous picture but group 2 are more likely to see the rat
• what is cognitive neuroscience?


  a discipline that is a combination of several disciples : cognitive psychologists, cognitive science and neuroscience
• cognitive neuroscience focuses on looking for a biological bias for behaviour and uses brain imaging techniques
• what are the strengths of the cognitive approach?

  • uses scientific and objective methods
  • cognitive psychologists use controlled and rigorous methods
  • the two areas of cognitive and biological psychology come together to enhance the scientific basis of study
  • can be applied to everyday life
  • dominant in psychology today and has been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts
• what are limitations of the cognitive approach

  • the use of interference means that the cognitive psychology can occasionally be too abstract and theoretical - artificial stimuli
  • based on machine reductionism
  • similarities between human mind and computers but the computer analogy has been criticised