Cognitive Approach

• What are the assumptions of the Cognitive Approach?

  1. Mental processes should be studied in a scientific way
  2. Inferences- drawing conclusions about what goes on in someone's mind on their observed behaviour
  3. Mental processes can be modelled through computer/ theoretical models
• What is a schema?


  Packages of information that act as a cognitive framework to help us organise and interpret information based on past experiences
• What is the information processing approach?


  Cognitive psychology perspective that views the mind as a computer-like system that processes information through various stages.

  1. Input
  2. Storage
  3. Retrieval
• What is Cognitive Neuroscience?

  The scientific study of the influence of brain structures on mental processes
• What did Tulving et al find out about the brain?

  That different parts of the brain is activated when you think about episodic and semantic memories
• Evaluation of Cognitive Approach: Scientific methods

  • Use objective scientific methods
  • Able to infer cognitive processes from highly controlled studies
  • Emergence of cognitive neuroscience means you can enhance scientific study
• Evaluation of Cognitive Approach: Counterpoint to the idea of Scientific Methods

  • Relies on inferences rather than direct observation of behaviour
  • Too abstract and theoretical
  • Artificial stimuli so it doesn't represent everyday experience
  • Lacks external validity
• Evaluation of Cognitive Approach: Real World Application

  • Practical Application
  • Development of AI and 'thinking machines' that may revolutionise how we live in the future
  • used in the explanation and treatment of depression
  • Improved the reliability of eyewitness testimony
• Evaluation of the Cognitive Approach: Machine Reductionism

  • May be similarities between the human mind and a computer but it has been criticised
  • Ignored the influence of human emotion and reduces everything to a basic computer analogy
  • Thoughts and emotions can affect our ability to process information so it may weaken the validity of the cognitive approach
• Evaluation of the Cognitive Approach: Soft Determinism

  • Soft Determinism- the view that human behaviour may be determined by internal and external factors but we can also exert free will at times
  • Acknowledges that while our thoughts, schemas, and mental processes influence our behaviour significantly, individuals still have the capacity to make conscious choices and exert some level of control over their actions
  • We have SOME free will
• AO3 Cognitive Neuroscience

  • More scientific and objective in research study
  • fMRI technology e.g London taxi drivers
  • Research studies identifying neurological basis of mental processes e.g Tulving study on long term memory and different locations
  • Machine reductionism as humans are complex
  • Provided biological basis of certain psychological disorders (eg role of the Parahippocampul gyrus in OCD) resulting in the development of new therapies