Cognitive

• The cognitive approach is concerned with how we process information, store it and retrieve it.
• • Born with two schema 
  • Sucking 
  • Grasping
• Computer models:

  • Involves programming computer to see if the instructions produce similar outputs to humans 
• Assumptions:

  • Mental processes should be studied scientifically 
  • Studies areas neglected by behaviourists 
  • Studied indirectly as processes are 'private'
• Cognitive Neuroscience:

  • The study of the influence of mental processes on brain structures 

  
• Begelsky + Alampay (1962) - The Rat Man 

  • Two groups shown faces 
  • Group 1 = human
  • Group 2 = different animals 
  • Were then shown this image 
  • Group 1 saw a man, group 2 saw a rat
  • Figure they saw was influenced by the schema formed by the initial images 
• • Advances in brain scanning allows better observations 
  • Computer simulations an be designed to read the brain
• + scientific methods 

  • Uses highly controlled methods able to infer processes at work so their data is reliable and objective 
  • Cognitive neuroscience has enabled biology and cognitive psychology to combine 

  Study of the mind has established a credible scientific basis 
• -- issues with RLA 

  • Only able to infer processes from observation, sometimes too abstract
  • Often carried out with artificial stimuli, not represent everyday experience 

  Research may lack external validity 
• + Less determinist than others

  • Founded on soft determinism - recognises that we can only operate within the limits of what we know, free to think before responding to stimulus
• -- Computer models are reductionist 

  • Computer analogy criticised 
  • Machine reductionism ignores human emotion, this may effect information processing 

  Computer models are not a complete explanation of cognition