AO1

• The main assumption of the cognitive approach is that information received from our senses is processed by the brain and that this processing directs how we behave. These thoughts can be both conscious and non-conscious, and these thoughts pass through stages called internal mental processes. Mental processes are information processing completed by the brain, and the brain’s processing can be compared to that of a computer.
• role of schemas

  A schema is a mental framework of experience or expectations about the world and/or objects that helps us organise and interpret information. They are based on our previous experiences and help us to interpret incoming information quickly and effectively, preventing us from being overwhelmed by the vast amount of information we perceive in our environment.

  Assimilation is when we add new information to an existing schema

  Accommodation is when an old schema has to be adapted, or a new schema created.
• Schemas can also lead to distortion of this information as we select and interpret environmental stimuli using schemas which might not be relevant. This could be the cause of inaccuracies in areas such as eyewitness testimony. It can also explain some errors we make when perceiving optical illusions.
• Laboratory experiments: These are the preferred method of investigation of the cognitive approach i.e. Loftus and Palmer (1974) - Car Crash Study. In these experiments the extraneous variables are tightly controlled so they can be replicated, but they lack ecological validity as they take place in artificial environments and the tasks are also artificial.
• Cognitive and biological psychology can be integrated into a field of study called Cognitive Neuroscience as a way of understanding human behaviour. This aims to find out how cognition is produced by the interaction of neural mechanisms, brain structure, and brain chemistry. This is done using brain imaging techniques such as fMRI and PET scans.
• Emergence of cognitive neuroscience


  More Scientific/objective study of brain structures on mental processes. Uses a combination of Cognitive tasks while using brain imaging techniques such as fMRI scans to observe the brain.

  Broca identified how damage to an area of the brain - the frontal lobe (which came to be known as Broca’s Area) could permanently impair speech production.

  Tulving was able to show how these different types of long term memory may be located in different areas of the brain.
• Case studies: These are used to study rare conditions which provide an insight on the working of some mental processes i.e. Clive Wearing, HM.