cognitive approach

• Approach


  The cognitive approach in psychology
• The cognitive approach argues that mental processes can and should be studied scientifically
• Cognitive approach


  • Investigates areas of human behaviour like perception and thinking
  • Focuses on the mental processes inside people's minds
  • Aims to study these mental processes directly
• Schema


  Packages of ideas and information developed through experience that provide a mental framework for interpreting incoming information
• Schema


  • Schema for a chair
  • Schema for what happens in a restaurant
  • Schema for what a typical zombie looks like
• Role of schema


  • Enable quick processing of lots of information
  • Can also distort interpretations of sensory information, leading to perceptual errors
• Theoretical models


  • Describe mental processes
  • Based on the way computers function
• Computer models


  • Involve programming a computer to produce similar outputs to humans
  • Used to develop thinking machines and artificial intelligence
• Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of the influence of brain structure on mental processes
• Advances in brain imaging techniques have allowed systematic observation and mapping of the neurological basis of mental processes
• Cognitive neuroscience has expanded to include the use of computer-based brain training techniques
• Cognitive approach


  Relies on scientific methods and inference of mental processes rather than direct observation of behaviour
• Cognitive approach


  Has practical real-world applications like in artificial intelligence and treatment of mental disorders
• Cognitive approach


  Uses machine reductionism which may overlook the influence of human emotion and motivation on cognitive processes
• The cognitive approach is founded on soft determinism, the view that behaviour is determined by internal and external factors but we can still exert free will