Approaches - Cognitive Approach

Question 1

AO1

Answer 1

• Inference – Going beyond the immediate evidence to make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed
• Schema – a mental structure which contains knowledge based on experience, it organises information and acts as a guide to behaviour which can be shown through Bugelski and Alampay’s research
• Theoretical models – a simplified, objective and descriptive representation of how our minds might work
• Information Processing (computer models) – the mind is compared to a computer suggesting there are similarities in the way information is processed and stored
• Cognitive Neuroscience – the scientific study of brain structures, mechanism and chemistry that are responsible for cognitive processes
• Internal Mental Processes – ‘Private’ operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response

Question 2

AO3

Answer 2

• A strength of the cognitive approach is the use of scientific methods to study behaviour and cognitive processes
• For example, the use of lab studies to make inferences ensure the experimental conditions are tightly controlled to produce more reliable theories and the use of cognitive neuroscience combines the theory with biology and uses scientific methods such as PET and fMRI scans to again produce more reliable theories.
• This is good for the approach because it makes it more trustworthy as more objective methods are used which can be used to prove the theory by this use of scientific methods.
• However a limitation of this is inferences still cannot be directly observed as it is a private process, suggesting that the cognitive approach is too abstract.
• Despite that, the cognitive approach is supported by the use of objective scientific methods of using lab studies and cognitive neuroscience.
• Thus increasing the validity of the approach
• Another strength of the cognitive approach is the Rat Man experiment concluded by Bugelski and Alampay
• This is when 2 groups of participants were shown a series of pictures; one group shown a series of animals and the other a series of faces and then they were both shown an image that can be interpreted as either or rat or a man to which the first group who were shown animals mostly said they saw a rat and the second group that were shown the faces were said they saw a man
• This supports the theory of schemas as it shows how a mental framework influences incoming information, causing the approach to be more reliable. However, this was a lab study so some may argue that it is not applicable to real life situations, limiting the approach
• Despite that, the rat man experiment supports the theory of schemas
• Thus increasing the internal validity of the approach
• A weakness of the cognitive approach is that it is based on computer and theoretical models
• For example, research has found that human memory may be affected by emotional factors, such as the influence of anxiety on eyewitnesses, something which computer models do not obtain.
• This is a weakness because it shows how such machines like computers ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system, and how this may affect our ability to process information, thus reducing the reliability of computer models for comparison of the human mind.
• However, it can be argued that the theoretical and computer models is useful as there are similarities between the human mind and the operations of a ‘thinking machine’ such as a computer.
• Despite that, the computer analogy has been criticized by many due to machine reductionism weakening the approach
• Thus decreasing the validity of the cognitive approach

Question 3

Inference

Answer 3

going beyond the immediate evidence to make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed

Question 4

Schema

Answer 4

A schema is a mental structure which contains knowledge based on experience. A schema organises information and acts as a guide to behaviour

Question 5

theoretical models

Answer 5

a simplified, objective and descriptive representation of how our minds might work

Question 6

information processing

Answer 6

also known as computer models

the mind is compared to a computer suggesting there are similarities in the way information is processed and stored

Question 7

cognitive neuroscience

Answer 7

the scientific study of brain structures, mechanisms and chemistry that are responsible for cognitive processes

Question 8

the focus of cognitive psychology

Answer 8

how people perceive, store, manipulate and interpret information and studies processes like perception, memory, thinking and problem solving

Question 9

these mental processes cannot be …

Answer 9

studied directly as they cannot be observed so they must be studied indirectly by inferring what goes on as a result of directly observing behaviour

Question 10

what schemas affect