cognitive approach

• What are the 5 assumptions?


  Internal mental processes, theoretical models, computer metaphor, mental schemas, cognitive neuroscience.
• What are examples of internal mental processes? INTERNAL MENTAL PROCESSES

  Attention, thinking, retrieving information.
• How does the cognitive approach use internal mental processes? INTERNAL MENTAL PROCESSES


  They cannot be observed so psychologists study them indirectly and make inferences about them.
• What is an inference? INTERNAL MENTAL PROCESSES

  An assumption about the cause of a behaviour that goes beyond the immediate evidence.
• What can theoretical models be used for? THEORETICAL MODELS

  To study internal mental processes.
• What is an important theoretical model? THEORETICAL MODELS


  The information processing model, which suggests that information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages that include input, storage, and retrieval, e.g. the MSM.
• Why was the computer metaphor created? COMPUTER METAPHOR

  Because there are similarities in the way a computer and a brain process information.
• How can a brain be compared to a computer model? COMPUTER METAPHOR

  Because computer models use concepts of a central processing unit (the brain), coding (turning information into a usable format), and the use of stores to hold information, e.g. the WMM.
• What are mental schemas? MENTAL SCHEMAS

  Organised packets of information containing stereotypes and expectations.
• What do mental schemas allow the brain to do? MENTAL SCHEMAS

  Quickly interpret incoming information.
• What does the cognitive approach believe about babies? MENTAL SCHEMAS

  They are born with simple motor schemas for innate behaviour e.g. sucking.
• What does the cognitive approach believe happens as we grow? MENTAL SCHEMAS

  Experience adds to our schemas so they become more detailed and sophisticated e.g. Beck's negative triad.
• What is cognitive neuroscience? COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE

  The scientific study of the influences of brain structures (neuro) on mental processes (cognition).
• Why has cognitive neuroscience now been achieved? COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE

  As technology has developed scanning methods e.g. fMRI and ERP.
• What does a typical study involve? COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE

  The researcher scanning and recording the ppt's brain as they perform a specific task.
• What is an example of a study using cognitive neuroscience? COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE

  Tulving using fMRI to scan the brains of ppts. He established that episodic and semantic LTM are handled by different hemispheres.
• How is the cognitive approach useful for explanations?

  It has been applied to many areas of psychology e.g. in psychopathology it has been used to show how abnormal behaviour can be caused by distorted thought processes.
• How did the cognitive approach improve SLT?

  The addition of a cognitive element gave it a more complete explanation of learning in a social context.
• How is the cognitive approach useful for therapies?

  It has helped develop the,, and the success of the, suggests that the cognitive explanation for abnormalities may be correct.
• What is a negative criticism of cognitive therapies?

  They treat the symptoms rather than the cause of abnormality, so while CBT is useful for helping reduce symptoms, it's success can't confidently be used to show the validity of the cognitive explanation.
• What is a strength of the cognitive approach relating to its method?

  It uses highly controlled scientific research methods, which are rigorous and objective.
• What is the limitation of the cognitive approach's use of lab based methods?

  They can lack ecological validity e.g. research with led to the MSM. although memory works in the way suggested in lab studies, it doesn't in everyday studies e.g. the MSM put emphasis on simple rehearsal, which is what ppts use in lab studies. However in everyday life we don't constantly rehearse information but we still remember it, so rehearsal can't be as important as the lab studies suggest.
• What is the strength of the cognitive approach relating to cognitive neuroscience?

  It has allowed researchers to record brain activity and draw conclusions about the areas of the brain that are active during specific tasks, which presumably will be the same in everyday life as in lab studies.
• What is a strength of the cognitive approach relating to the use of inferences?

  It is useful, because it is the only way of explaining behaviour which can't be seen directly.
• What is a limitation of the cognitive approach relating to the use of inferences?

  They're assumptions that go beyond the available evidence, and so in a way its researchers 'making sense' of the evidence they do have. This can lead to poor explanations e.g. Atkinson and Shiffrin's idea of unitary memory stores, which has been undermined by later evidence.
• What is a limitation of the cognitive approach relating to computers' differences to humans?

  Reducing the mind to the operations of a computer is 'machine reductionism'. It ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation, which may influence our ability to process information e.g. research has found that memory can be affected by emotion. This reduces the validity and therefore the usefulness of the computer metaphor.
• What is a limitation of the cognitive approach relating to the differences between brain and computers?

  They do not work in the same way. Computers do not make mistakes, ignore any available information, or forget anything stored on their hard drives. Human do all of these things though. This reduces the validity and therefore the usefulness of the computer metaphor.
• Evaluation: scientific and objective methods

  -Always employed highly controlled and rigorous methods of study.

  Involved the use of lab experiments: = produces reliable, objective data.

  -Emergence of cognitive neuroscience has enabled the two fields of biology and cognitive psychology to come together.

  -This means that the study of the mind has established a credible scientific basis.
• Evaluation: machine reductionism


  -Computer analogy: even though there are similarities between the human mind and a computer (inputs, storage systems, outputs, the use of a central processor) analogy used by many.

  -Machine reductionism ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system, and how this may affect our ability to process information.

  -Research has found that human memory may be affected by emotional factors, such as the influence of anxiety on eyewitnesses.
• Evaluation: Lacks external validity

  -Cognitive psychologists are only able to infer mental processes from the behaviour they observe.

  -Cognitive psychology, as a consequence, occasionally suffers from being too abstract and theoretical in nature.

  -Experimental studies of mental processes are often carried out using artificial stimuli (such as memory tests with lists of words). They may not represent everyday memory experience.

  -May lack external validity.
• Evaluation: real-life application


  -Probably the most dominant approach in psychology today.

  -Been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts.

  -Cognitive psychology has made an important contribution in artificial intelligence and the development of "thinking machines" (robots).

  -Exciting advances that may revolutionise hoe we live in the future.
• Evaluation: less determinist than other approaches


  -The cognitive approach is founded on soft determinism - it recognises that our cognitive system can only operate within the limits of what we know, but that we are free to think before responding to a stimulus.

  -This is more of a reasonable "interactionist" position than the hard determinism suggested by some other approaches.