cognitive approach

• overall assumptions of cognitive?

  • thoughts influence behaviour
  • focuses on internal processes of human mind - memory/perception/thinking
• what is SLINCI?

  Schema

  Lab experiments

  Internal mental processes

  Neuroscience

  Computer models

  Inference
• what is schema?

  • building block of knowledge about something that is built up through our own experiences
  • unique to the individual
  • as we get older schema increases as we have had more experiences so knowledge is greater
  • acts as framework of how to act in certain situations
  • helps us to know how to interpret info when there is gaps
• why is schema useful?

  • helps us to predict what will happen in the world
  • helps us to prevent being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli
• what can schemas lead to?

  • stereotypes
  • prejudice
• our memory is?

  reconstructive
• explain internal mental processes?

  • private operations of the mind
  • such as perception & attention
• how does the cognitive app suggest we take in info?

  • input - process - output
• how are internal mental processes studied?

  • indirectly
  • look at persons behaviour & make inferences about their internal processes that caused that behaviour
• name 2 ways to study internal processes?

  1. theoretical model
  2. computer model
• explain theoretical model?

  • make inferences by looking at behaviour & examining thought processes that happen in mind
  • usually in distinct steps - suggests that info flows in a sequence of stages in cognitive system
• explain computer model?

  • mind is compared to a computer
  • suggests that there are similarities in the way that a person processes info to a way a computer does
• explain neuroscience?

  • scientific way of studying brain structures/processes/chemistry that are responsible for mental processes
  • map brain areas to a specific cognitive function
• 3 *?

  1. real life applications
  2. scientific
  3. clinical evidence to support from clive wearing
• * real life applications

  • places emphasis on internal mental processes to explain depression - due to problems with negative & irrational thoughts
  • as a result has led to cognitive treatment of depression - rebt where it aims to change irrational thoughts to more rational ones
  • helped the developement of treatments for patients with a mental illness
  • so shows that it has practical applications for explaining certain behaviours in real world
• * scientific?

  • objective, uses lab experiments so has high internal validity
  • evs are controlled so can establish cause & effect relationship between mental processes
  • internal
  • falisifiable & objective so it can be concluded that thoughts influence behaviour
• * clinical evidence from clive wearing

  • damaged hippocampus & had difficulty transferring info from short term to long term memory
  • affected his cognitions & in turn his behaviour - supporting the use of cognitive neuroscience
  • shows there are specific parts of brain that have certain functions which determine human processes & behaviour showing thoughts influence behaviour
  • but case studies are hard to replicate & unique so reliability of this method to understand cog approach may be questioned
• name 2 weaknesses?

  1. lacks ecological validity - unrealistic
  2. machine reductionist
• X machine reductionist?

  • reduces something complex to something very simple that bieng our internal mental processes are same as computers
  • pro : allows us to research in detail so is likely to be scientific
  • con: ignores other factors that could affect human processes eg human emotion
  • if we dont consider other factors which influence human processes & control these vairables then we are not accurately measuring the effect of IV on DV
• X unrealistic?

  • uses lab experiments so behaviour will be unnatural
  • also compares processes to computers which is not realistic as humans make errors & dont necessarily work in same process every time we do something
  • ecological
  • findings cannot be generalised to real life situations
  • also difficult to compare humans to computers as it neglects confounding variables which may also influence behaviour - personality