cognitive approach

• key assumptions of the cognitive approach:

  1. uses the computer analogy
  2. behaviour is a product of information processing
  3. internal mental processes cannot be observed however can be inferred from behaviour
  4. inference = the process of drawing conclusions about the way mental processes operate on a basis of observed evidence
• cognitive priming = exposure to a stimulus influences how we will relate or respond to the same or similar stimuli experienced in the future
• positive priming = a favourable reaction to a stimuli speeds up our future responses to the same or similar stimuli
• negative priming = an unfavourable reaction to a stimuli slows down our future responses to the same or similar stimuli
• repetition = a type of positive priming that makes future responses quicker
• semantic priming = priming associated with meaning and allows you to quickly associate categories with similar meanings eg “cat” and “dog”
• associative = priming that occurs due to regular association of two alike categories
• Cognitive bias:

  • includes heuristics or mental shortcuts used by the brain to effectively treat the demands placed on memory capacity. these biases are often efficient but can sometimes have negative effects resulting in stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination
• confirmation bias = we focus on things that are consistent or support our previously held views and ignore any information that doesn’t fit it
• confirmation bias = we focus on things that are consistent or support our previously held views and ignore any information that doesn’t fit it
• hostile attribution bias = tendency to ascribe negative intentions to someone and then behave to them as if they are threatening you
• fundamental attribution bias = tendency to underestimate the effect of your own motives but overestimate the motives or behaviours of others about a similar thing
• Gender Schema Theory


  Children begin to form gender schemas as soon as they notice that people are organised into the categories male and female
• Gender schema development


  1. Interactions with other children

  2. Interactions with adults

  3. Interactions with the media
• Gender schemas


  Allow us to organise and structure information e.g. what toys to play with and what clothes to wear
• Child identifies with their in-group

  They begin to positively evaluate their in-group and negatively evaluate the out-group
• Child has formed gender schemas


  They begin to ignore information that is not consistent with their in-group schema
• Gender schemas


  • Have strong effects on memory
  • Have strong effects on how individuals perceive the world
• reconstructive memory (Bartlett)

  • memory is an active process, we store fragments of information and when asked to recall something we build from these filling in missing elements
  • before memories enter the long term memory store they change, they then change slightly every time we recall them
  • we change our memories to fit in with what we already know
• shortening = unfamiliar details that don’t fit in with your schema are left out
• rationalisation = when part of your memory is distorted to fit into the schema
• confabulation = when we invent parts of our memory to fill any gaps in our knowledge
• war of ghosts study:

  Aim = investigate the impact of schemas on reconstructive memory

  Procedure = 20 english college students were asked to read war of ghosts. bartlett compared how well each of the students would recall the story and how their recall changed

  Findings = participants added more new information when there was a longer duration between story tellings and the more times the story was told

  conclusion = people make errors during the reconstructive memory process and schemas help us make sense of the world
• Stages of memory:

  1. input → information enters the memory through our senses
  2. encoding → info is put into a format that is recognisable so sense can be made from it
  3. storage → once encoded, it is filed away for future use
  4. retrieval → opening info from where it is stored
  5. output → using the memory
• • sensory register
  • duration: 0-18 seconds
  • encoding: different stores for each of the senses (iconic, echoic ect)
  • capacity: all sensory experience
• • short term memory
  • duration: 25-30 seconds
  • encoding: mainly auditory
  • capacity: 5-9 items
• • long term memory
  • duration: unlimited
  • encoding: Mainly Semantic (but can be visual and auditory)
  • capacity: unlimited
• • free call → recall without the help of cues
  • cued recall → the retrieval of memory with the help of cues. Such cues are often semantic.
• recognition → a form of remembering characterized by a feeling of familiarity when something previously experienced is again encountered
• schemas

  • packages of ideas, concepts, beliefs and expectations developed through experience
  • act as a mental framework to interpret incoming information
  • babies are born with simple motor schemas eg sucking and grasping
  • as we get older, we learn more sophisticated and detailed schemas
  • they are useful because they help us to take shortcuts in thinking in order to process things quicker and avoid being overwhelmed however, they can distort our interpretations of stimuli and lead to faulty conclusions or unhelpful behaviour
• cognitive script - a collection of schemata which join together and develop over time to produce a series of expectations suitable to a particular situation
• Cognitive approach


  • Uses scientific and objective methods as evidence
  • Memory models, models of depression and artificial intelligence
• Cognitive approach


  • Led to successful treatment (CBT) for illnesses such as depression, OCD and schizophrenia
• Machine reductionism


  The role of emotions and motivations has largely been ignored by the cognitive approach because of information-processing analogies and motivation is important to humans but irrelevant to computers
• Soft determinism


  The view that human behaviour may be influenced by internal and external factors, however, we also exert our free will in making decisions
• The cognitive approach has been accused of being descriptive over explanatory, limiting usefulness
• Memory models describe processes, but don't focus on what determines them
• Gender Identity Disorder

  • an individual’s biologically prescribed sex does not match or reflect the way they feel inside and their gender identity.
  • gender reassignment surgery, or becoming transgender, are options available to bring their sexual and gender identity in alignment with each other.
• Sex-role inventory

  • Sandra Bem believed that children around 2 years old start to learn about schema and cognitively process gender-related information from their culture.
  • Bem (1981): developed her sex-role inventory to measure ‘androgyny’ or how masculine or feminine a persons perceives themselves to be.