Cognitive approach

• When did the cognitive approach get discovered?

  1950s
• What inspired the cognitive approach?

  Introduction of computers
• What does the cognitive approach enable?

  Objective, experimental study of the mind e.g. multi-store model
• What is the cognitive approach?

  An approach to psychology that studies internal mental processes like attention, memory, and decision-making, viewing the mind as an information processor that actively processes information from the senses
• What are some assumptions of the cognitive approach?

  • Internal mental processes should be studied scientifically
  • Stimulus and response is appropriate but only if thought processes that occur between them are acknowledged
  • Human beings are information processors
  • Inference (assumptions about internal processes based on patterns of behaviour seen in observations) can happen
  • Models should be created (theoretical or computer) to show how our mind works
• What are schemas?

  A 'package' of ideas and expectations on a topic that come from prior experience, which helps us take shortcuts in thinking

  • Becomes more detailed and sophisticated over time
  • Represents the world + events
  • 'Building blocks of memory'
  • Can distort our memories of events, leading to faulty conclusions
• Computer models

  Input -> Processing -> Output
• What is a problem with creating models representing our internal mental processes?

  Oversimplification
• Rat-man experiment by Bugelski & Alampay (1962)

  participants who saw a sequence of faces were more likely to perceive the figure as a man, whereas participants who saw a sequence of animals were more likely to perceive the figure as a rat
• What was the rat-man?

  A picture that was a mix of a rat and a man. Participants were shown a list of pictures (faces / animals) with the rat-man on the end

  
• What is a theoretical model?

  Simplified representations based on current research evidence, in picture form represented by boxes and arrows, for example MSM, WMM
• What are the benefits of cognitive approach?

  • Real-life application
  • Scientific
  • Soft-determinism
• What are the real life application of cognitive approach?

  • Therapy
  • Better understanding of how we form impressions
  • Explain how dysfunctional behaviour can be due to faulty thinking processes
  • Artificial intelligence (robots - thinking machines, uses human processing programming)
• How is cognitive approach research scientific?

  • Lab experiments (highly controlled - reliable, objective data)
  • Cognitive + biology working together on a credible scientific basis
• Soft-determinism

  Belief that behaviour is influenced by both internal mental processes and external factors
• How does the cognitive approach use 'soft-determinism'?

  • Recognises that our cognitive system can only operate within the limits of what we know, we are free to think before responding to a stimulus
  • Therefore less deterministic than other approaches (interactionist approach - middle ground)
• What are the limitations of the cognitive approach?

  • Machine reductionism
  • Low external validity
• What is machine reductionism?

  Simplifying complex systems into smaller, more manageable processes , like a computer, overlooking the complexity of human experience
• How is the cognitive approach machine reductionist?

  • Ignores the influence of emotions and motivation on the cognitive system and how it affects our ability to process information
  • For example emotional factors such as anxiety affects accuracy of eyewitness testimony
• Why does the cognitive approach have a low external validity?

  • Psychologists are only able to infer about mental processes from the behaviour they observe during research -> abstract and theoretical, oversimplified
  • Experiments use artificial stimuli such as tests on memory using word lists which does not represent real life
• What are methods used in cognitive neuroscience?

  • Lesion studies: causes brain damage to see how behaviour changes (used on animals)
  • Case study of brain damage: after an accident
  • Neuroimaging: pinpoints areas of the brain that are active during certain tasks (e.g. PET for memory, fMRI, EEG)
• What are practical applications of cognitive neuroscience?

  Discovery over areas in the brain associated with memory

  • Prefrontal cortex - active during STM task
  • Hippocampus - active during LTM task