The Cognitive Approach (Approaches) Flashcards
The Cognitive Approach
How our mental processes (e.g. thoughts, perceptions and attention) affect our behaviour.
Assumptions of the cognitive approach
-Our mental systems have a limited capacity: amount of information we can process is influenced by how challenging a task is and how much other info is processed
-Control mechanisms oversee all mental processes: requires more processing power for new tasks, leaving less available for everything else
-there is a two way flow of information: we take in info, process it and react to it. We also use knowledge and experiences to understand the world
Schema
A package of information developed through experience. Helps you to organise and interpret information and experiences. Schema affect behaviour. When information is consistent with a schema, it is assimilated into the schema. When information is inconsistent, accommodation occurs and the schema has to change in order to resolve the inconsistency.
Types of Schemas
-Role schemas: these are ideas about the behaviour which is expected from someone in a certain role, setting or situation
-Event schema: these are also called scripts. They contain information about what happens in a situation
-Self schemas: these contain information about ourselves eased on physical characteristics and personality, as well as beliefs and values. Self schemas can affect how you can act.
Schema Problems
Schemas can stop people from learning new information:
-prejudice and stereotypes can be an outcome of schemas
-schema which hold expectations or beliefs about a certain subgroup of people that may bias the way we process incoming information
This can lead to faulty conclusions and unhelpful behaviour and perception errors
Method (Bartlett 1932 The War of the Ghosts)
English participants were asked to read a Native American folk tale.
It was an unfamiliar story with strange and unusual names, ideas and objects. It also had a different structure to most English stories.
The participants were asked to recall the story after different lengths of time.
Results (Bartlett 1932 The War of the Ghosts)
All of the participants changed the story to fit their own schemas. The story started to contain elements of English culture and details and emotions were added.
As the length of time between hearing and recalling the story increased, the amount of information remembered decreased.
Conclusion (Bartlett 1932 The War of the Ghosts)
People use their own schemas to help interpret and remember the word around them.
Evaluation (Bartlett 1932 The War of the Ghosts)
Was a laboratory experiment so it lacks ecological validity.
Highly influential and paved the way for further cognitive research.
Methods involved in brain scanning
-Lesion studies see if brain damage changes behaviour.
-Electro physiology uses electric and magnetic fields to measure brain activity.
-Neuroimaging pinpoints areas of the brain which are active when a task is performed
For areas of the brain…
use diagram in notes or revision guide.
Tulving et al. 1985
Using PET and fMRI scans, Tulving systematically observed neurological basis in mental processing.
Tasks involving episodic (personal memory store) and semantic (knowledge of the world store) memory may be located at different sides of the pre-frontal cortex.
Left side- involved recalling semantic memories
Right side- involved in recalling episodic memories
Braver et al. 1997
Participants were given tasks that involved the central executive whilst having their brain scanned.
Greater activity in the left pre-frontal cortex, activity increased as the task became harder
Working memory model, as demand on the CE increase, has to work harder to fulfil its function
(Evaluation of the cognitive approach) Scientific and objective methods
highly controlled and rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes
Lab experiments are reliable and objective
Biology and cognitive psychology now work together
Credible scientific basis
(Evaluation of the cognitive approach) Machine reductionism
Ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system and how this affects the ability to process information
Humans have an unreliable and unlimited memory while computers have a limited but reliable memory
We may have free will
