Approaches - cognitive approach

• Cognitive approach


  Developed in the 1960's as a response to behaviourists' failure to acknowledge mental processes
• Cognitive approach


  • Development of the first computers gave cognitive psychologists a metaphor for describing mental processes
  • Emphasis of psychology shifted away from the study of conditioned behaviour and psychoanalytical notions about the study of the mind, towards the understanding of human information processing, using strict and rigorous laboratory investigation
• Cognitive


  Mental processes, e.g. thoughts, perceptions, attention affect behaviour
• Assumptions of the cognitive approach

  • Internal Mental Processes (IMP)
  • Inference
  • Science
• Internal Mental Processes (IMP)


  • The 'private' operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response, and according to Cognitive Psychologists these IMP can and should be studied scientifically
  • Individuals will make sense of a situation in their environment and think before reacting, in contrast to the behaviourist approach
• Inference


  The process whereby cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour
• Cognitive psychologists investigate thinking by manipulating what people take into their minds (information) and observing what comes out (behaviour)
• Theoretical models


  Abstract models used to understand internal mental processes
• Computer models


  Concrete models used to understand internal mental processes
• Information processing approach


  1. Input

  2. Throughput

  3. Output
• Schema


  A mental 'package' of ideas and information which are developed through experience, acting as a mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information
• Schemas


  • We do not remember all that we store, so we 'mentally rummage' and draw on schemas when we actively try to recall an event
  • Schemas act as a short cut that prevents us from being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli
  • Schemas can cause biased recall and have a negative impact on mental health
• Cognitive neuroscience


  The scientific study of biological structures that underpin cognitive processes
• Cognitive neuroscience findings


  • Broca's area damage impairs speech production
  • Wernicke's area damage impairs language understanding
  • Semantic and episodic memories are recalled from different areas of the prefrontal cortex
• Cognitive neuroscience has expanded to include computer-generated models that 'read' the brain, leading to the development of 'brain fingerprinting'
• Strengths of the cognitive approach

  • Uses highly controlled and rigorous methods of study
  • Less determinist than other approaches, recognising the role of conscious choices
  • Has contributed positively to society through applications like AI and CBT
• Limitations of the cognitive approach

  • Narrow focus on mental processes, demonstrating machine reductionism
  • Reliance on artificial lab studies lacking external validity and mundane realism