cognitive approach

• focuses on how people perceive, store, manipulate and interpret information
• believed in looking at internal mental processes and using information processing models
• because information processing approach was first used to describe the way in which computers processed information, computer metaphors are used to describe the way in which the brain processes information
• mental processes contribute to information processing such as attention, memory, and retrieving when needed. this information can't be studied directly so its studied by inferring
• schema: a mental framework that organizes and stores information in the brain. E.G. schemas for specific events are based on expectations of how to behave in certain situations/ in different roles
• schemas allow us to take shortcuts when interpreting huge amounts of information, but they also cause us to ignore information that doesn't fit our schema
• therefore schemas help us develop stereotypes that are difficult to disconfirm
• theoretical models vs computer models

  • theoretical: e.g. multistore model, simplified representations based on current research. often pictorial by nature and often incomplete + informal, frequently changed, updated and refined
  • computer: e.g. sensory info is coded. using a computer analogy, info is inputted through senses, encoded into memory and then combined with previously stored info to complete task.
• emergence in cognitive neuroscience?

  through rapid advances scientists are now able to study the living brain, giving them info about brain structures involved in different kinds of mental processing.

  non-invasive neuroimaging like fMRI and PET scans supports different activities and emotions by showing which parts of the brain are active in certain circumstances.