Cognitive approach

• Cognitive approach

  The study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of theoretical and computer models to explain and make inferences about mental processes. The emergence of cognitive neuroscience.
• The cognitive approach focuses on the examination of internal mental processes such as perception, memory, attention and consciousness
• Since internal mental processes are internal and cannot be studied directly, their operation must be inferred from the observation and measurement of visible human behaviour
• Theoretical models


  Visual representations of internal mental processes used to simplify and study complex processes
• Computer models

  Models developed within psychology to explain different mental processes, such as the analogy of long-term memory being the hard disk and short-term (working memory) being the computer's RAM
• Cognitive neuroscience


  A relatively new field that tries to bridge the gap between the cognitive and biological approaches, using non-invasive brain scanning techniques like PET scans and MRIs to understand which parts of the brain are active while specific internal mental processes are being used
• Brain scans have highlighted the distinction between different types of long-term memory (LTM)
• Brain imaging techniques have also been successful in establishing a link to certain mental health disorders, such as the association between obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and the parahippocampal gyrus
• Schema

  Mental frameworks of information that we use to organise past experiences and to interpret and respond to new situations
• Schemas are an example of top-down information-processing, because they provide us with expectations about what will happen in the world, rather than requiring us to process every single detail, all of the time
• Schemas can lead to errors in information-processing such as prejudice and discrimination
• The cognitive approach pays respect to both the nature and nurture element of this debate
• The cognitive approach straddles both the nomothetic and idiographic approaches in psychology
• The cognitive approach has many real-world applications, such as reducing the use of eyewitness testimony in court cases and leading to major reforms in police procedure, as well as helping professionals understand and treat mental illnesses such as depression through the use of therapies like CBT
• Not all human behaviour can be captured under the cognitive umbrella, as the research in this field has tended to neglect other significant dimensions of behaviour such as emotion and motivation