Cognitive approach

• Cognitive approach


  • Study of internal mental processes
  • Role of schemas
  • Use of theoretical and computer models
  • Emergence of cognitive neuroscience
• Inference


  Making assumptions from observable behaviour about unobservable mental processes that can't be directly studied
• Schemas


  Mental frameworks of expectations and beliefs that have developed through experience and will influence cognitive processing
• Schemas can lead to negative interpretations of themselves or others, and can also lead to perceptual errors
• Information processing model


  Suggests that information flows through our cognitive system in a sequence of stages
• Computational models


  Assume the mind can be compared to a computer
• Cognitive neuroscience studies how brain structures influence mental processes
• Schemas


  Cognitive shortcuts that allow people to process lots of information very rapidly
• Schemas


  Can lead to negative interpretations of themselves or others
• Schemas


  Can lead to perceptual errors e.g. misheard song lyrics
• Theoretical models


  Used to scientifically study internal mental processes
• Cognitive neuroscience


  The study of how brain structures (neurons) influence mental processes
• Advances in scanning techniques have allowed cognitive neuroscience to rapidly progress over the last 20 years
• Applications of cognitive neuroscience


  • Use of scanning/imaging techniques to locate different types of memory in different areas of the brain leading to treatment for memory problems
• Strengths of the cognitive approach

  • Uses scientific and objective methods
  • Allows psychology and biology to come together as a credible scientific discipline
  • Has many practical applications
• Limitations of the cognitive approach

  • Lacks ecological validity due to artificial lab research
  • Oversimplifies complex processes by comparing the mind to a computer
• Free will vs Determinism

  The cognitive approach is less deterministic than other approaches, assuming individuals have conscious control over their thoughts