Cognitive

• What is the main assumption of the cognitive approach?

  Internal mental processes can be studied scientifically.
• How do cognitive psychologists study mental processes?

  Through scientific methods and case studies.
• Why are inferences necessary in the cognitive approach?

  Because mental processes cannot be directly observed.
• What is the theoretical model used in cognitive psychology?

  The information processing approach.
• What does the information processing approach suggest?

  Information flows in stages, like in memory models.
• What is the computer model in cognitive psychology?

  It compares the brain to a computer.
• What processes does the computer model include?

  Input, storage, and output of information.
• What is a schema in cognitive psychology?

  A mental framework of beliefs and expectations.
• What is one benefit of schemas?

  They help process vast amounts of information quickly.
• What is a limitation of schemas?

  They can distort perception and lead to errors.
• What is cognitive neuroscience?

  The study of brain structures' influence on mental processes.
• What are two brain scanning techniques used in cognitive neuroscience?

  PET scans and MRI scans.
• What did Broca discover about the brain?

  Damage to Broca’s area affects speech production.
• How could cognitive neuroscience be applied in courtrooms?

  By analyzing brainwave patterns of eyewitnesses.
• A strength is that the cognitive approach has real-life application. Cognitive psychology has made an important contribution in the field of artificial intelligence and the development of thinking machines. This may revolutionise how we live in the future. This supports that the cognitive approach is versatile and can be used to understand different aspects of human behaviour.
• A strength is that non-methodic methods are considered as a scientific approach. The cognitive approach has always employed highly controlled and rigorous methods. The emergence of cognitive neuroscience has enabled two fields of biology and cognitive psychology as it uses PET and fMRI scans. The use of nomothetic methods, such as laboratory experiments, produce reliable and objective behaviour, showing that the cognitive approach to study the mind is based on scientific grounds.
• A limitation is that the cognitive approach suffers from machine reductionism. Research has found that human memory may be affected by emotional factors, such as the influence of anxiety on eyewitnesses. This ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system. Therefore, the cognitive approach is criticised as being machine reductionist and focused too much on how much we process information and less on important factors like emotions.
• A limitation is that research lacks validity. Experiments to study memory use artificial test material like word lists. This may not represent everyday memory experience. Therefore, research on cognitive processes may lack ecological validity. This suggests that it is hard to draw concrete conclusions about the validity of the cognitive approach.