Cognitive

• Cognitive defining principles


  -Behaviour is caused by internal mental processes such as memory, attention, perception, thinking and language

  -We can understand the mind as an information processor similar to a computer, behaviour is a result of input, processing and output

  -Supports psychology as a science debate
• Cognitive strengths

  -Good scientific status as most research is experimental and tightly controlled in a laboratory setting, which avoids extraneous variables

  -Opening the black box has extended our understanding of people so understanding how people think, attend, remember and make sense of the world.
• Cognitive applications

  CBT therapies

  Legal system and eyewitness testimony helped understanding of memory

  Health and safety and education from research into attention
• Cognitive area weaknesses

  -Computer analogy breaks down- people are effected by instinct and emotions dependant on internal and external factors meaning its hard to predict and measure

  -Cognitive reductionsm- focusses on mental processes and therefore ignore other factors such as social influence and unconscious factors.

  -Lacks validity- cognitive functioning cant be directly observed, based in artificial settings which means it lacks in ecological validity
• Cognitive research


  Grant- research on context dependant memory links to internal mental processes and perception, how a person can remember information in the same setting or circumstance to whether the information was first processed. Also links to the computer analogy and how we can recall when necessary.

  Loftus and palmer- research on leading questions effect on memory links to internal mental processes and the effect of language on memory recall and the computer analogy and how when we process information it changes and then outputted