Cognitive approach

Subdecks (2)

Cards (36)

  • What does the cognitive approach argue?
    Internal mental processes can and should be studied scientifically
  • What areas of behaviour does the cognitive approach investigate that were neglected by behaviourists?
    Memory, perception and thinking
  • How do cognitive psychologists study internal mental processes?
    Indirectly by making inferences
  • How do cognitive psychologists make inferences?
    On the basis of observable behaviour
  • What are inferences?
    Drawing logical conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour
  • What is cognitive neuroscience?
    The scientific study of biological structures that underpin cognitive processes
  • What is a schema?
    A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing developed from experience
  • What are internal mental processes?
    'Private' operations of the mind that mediate between stimulus and response
  • What are examples of internal mental processes?
    Perception and attention
  • Schema are 'packages' of ideas and information developed through experience
  • Schema act as mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information
  • Babies are born with simple motor schema for innate behaviours
  • What happens to our schema as we get older?
    Becomes more detailed and sophisticated
  • What do schema enable us to do?
    Process lots of information quickly
  • Why are schema useful?
    They're a mental shortcut that prevents us being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli
  • What is a problem with schema?
    May distort our interpretations of sensory information, leading to perceptual errors
  • What do cognitive psychologists use to understand internal mental processes?
    Theoretical and computer models
  • What are theoretical models?
    Abstract
  • What are computer models?
    Concrete things
  • What is an example of a theoretical model?
    Information processing approach (multi-store model)
  • What is an example of a computer model?
    Artificial intelligence
  • Computer models involve programming a computer to see if instructions produce a similar output to humans
  • What is the cognitive approach?
    A way of explaining behaviour based on mental processes