The Cognitive Approach

• What is the role of the schemas on behaviour?

  • a schema is a packet of information based on past expectations
  • Act as a mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information
  • schema enables us to process lots of information and useful as a mental shortcut
• How are theoretical and computer models used?

  • used to help understand internal mental processes
• What is the information processing approach?

  • suggests info flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages
  • input, storage , retrieval
  • based on the way a computer processes information to give an output
  • led to the development of artifical intelligence
• How does the emergence of cognitive neuroscience help?

  • The emergence of cognitive neuroscience occurred due to advances in brain imaging techniques such as fMRI and PET scans, which allow scientists to study the mental processes like memory. Used in EWT
  • 1860's - Paul Broca had identified how damage to Broca's area could impair speech production (Patient Tan)
• What are the strengths of the cognitive approach?

  • one strength is that it uses objective, scientific methods. Involves use of lab studies which produces reliable data
  • another strength is it has real life application. Brain scans can be used to diagnose mental disorders. The use of CBT involves the cognitive methods/cognitive interview
• What is the limitation of the cognitive approach?

  • machine reductionism - likens minds to a computer. computers ignore human emotion so a limited explanation
• What is cognitive neuroscience?

   The scientific study of the ways in which cognitive processes and the biological structures of the brain and the nervous system work together.