Cognitive Approach Flashcards
(23 cards)
AO1 cognitive approach
- 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
AO3 (1) cognitive
- 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
AO3 (2) cognitive
- 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
AO3 (3) cognitive
- 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
Cognitive approach assumptions
- Behaviour can be largely explained through internal mental processes such as thought
- Conscious Thought can influence behaviour
- Mediational processes occur between stimulus and response.
- The information processing approach suggests the mind works in a way similar to a computer: inputting, storing and retrieving data.
- Mental processes can be scientifically studied using laboratory experiments
Inference definition
Going beyond the immediate evidence to make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed.
Schema definition
A schema is a mental structure which contains knowledge based on experience. A schema organises information and acts as a guide to behaviour.
Theoretical models definition
A simplified, objective and descriptive representations of how our minds might work.
Information processing computer model definition
The mind is compared to a computer suggesting there are similarities in the way information is processed and stored.
Cognitive neuroscience definition
The Scientific study of brain structures, mechanisms and chemistry that are responsible for cognitive processes
Info on inference
Cognitive Psychology focuses on how people perceive, store, manipulate and interpret information and studies processes like perception, memory, thinking and problem solving.
Cognitive Psychologists therefore believe many different kinds of processes that contribute to us and therefore it is necessary to look at these processes in order to truly understand behaviour.
However these mental processes cannot be studied directly as they cannot be observed.
Therefore they must be studied indirectly by inferring what goes on as a result of directly observed behaviour.
This leads to Psychologists developing theories and models about mental processes for example the information processing model “The multistore model” was constructed through inference to describe short term memory.
Info on schemas
Schemas affect what we notice, how we interpret things and how we make decisions and act.
These schemas are learnt from a young age through experience.
Schemas save time because they help you to make shortcuts when you organise and interpret new or large amounts of information rapidly.
Schemas therefore also prevent us from becoming overwhelmed by environmental stimuli.
Once a schema is learnt, individuals tend to pay more attention (selective attention/ attentional bias) to information that is relevant or agrees with their schema and ignore or distort information that may challenge their pre-existing schema.
What is a schema?
A schema is a mental structure which contains knowledge based on experience. A schema organises information and acts as a guide to behaviour
little packets of ideas and information developed through experience
Info on gender schema theory
The concept of Schema has been used in Psychology to explain Gender Stereotypes.
Martin and Halverson suggest that there are two types of sex-related schema: the “in-group out-group” schema and the “own-sex” schema.
So a girl might begin by identifying toys which are for the in-group (a doll for a girl) or out-group (a train for a boy) and then move on to the “own-sex” schema by thinking: ‘A doll is for a girl. I am a girl. A doll is for me’.
Research support for gender schema
The concept of Gender schemas is supported by research which shows that children will remember Gender Consistent information better that information which challenges their gender.
Martin and Halverson found that when children were asked to recall pictures of people, children under six recalled more of the gender-consistent ones (such as a male fire-fighter) than the gender-inconsistent ones (e.g. a male nurse).
The research therefore supports the important role of attention and retention in informing Schema and the role of schema in the development of children’s gender identity.
Understanding teams can be useful info
Understanding the role of Schemas is useful in explaining symptoms of psychological illness. Negative schemas of the self, future and the world can be demonstrated in individuals suffering from depression and could explain the low mood experienced by sufferers of this condition also. These can then be challenged in methods used in Cognitive Behaviour therapy to help the service user develop more positive schemas to help treat negative or distorted thinking.
Information that does not fit a schema could be ignored or distorted. We form schemas based on our experiences in life. Once they are formed, however, schemas have a tendency to remain unchanged — even in the face of contradictory information. This is because Schemas lead to attentional bias as individuals will only attend to information that fits into their schema.
The cognitive approach is therefore useful in its ability to explain the role and implications of attentional bias and the role of schemas on behaviour
Theoretical models info
Theoretical models are descriptive versions of how some aspect of the human mind and behaviour works, which may be represented visually.
One important theoretical model is the information processing approach which suggests information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages including input, storage and retrieval.
The Multistore model is an example of this. Further examples of theoretical models include Ellis ABC model and Becks Cognitive triad which have both been used to explain the role of cognition in the onset of mood disorders such as depression.
Computer models info
Computer models compare the mind to a computer and are software simulations of internal mental processes that are created in collaboration with computer scientists.
These models use concepts of a central processing unit, the concept of coding and the use of stores to link the human mind to the processing of a computer.
Such models have proved useful in the development of robotics “thinking machines” or artificial intelligence which attempts to make computers simulate cognitive performance.
Machine reductionism
Although there are similarities between the human mind and the operations of a computer, the computer analogy has been criticised by many due to its machine reductionism.
Reducing the complexity of the human mind and behaviour to the processing and function of a machine fails to consider the complexity of the human brain and its physiology, including its ability to adapt and change due to experience (neural plasticity) which computer processors are not able to do.
Furthermore it fails to consider the influence of emotion and motivation on human cognition which may affect the way in which we process information.
One example of this is the wealth of evidence supporting the effect of anxiety on human memory.
This limits the ability for computer models to full explain the complexity of human behaviour challenging the usefulness of this assumption of the Cognitive approach
What is cognitive neuroscience?
Cognitive Neuroscience is the scientific study of the influence of brain structure, function and chemistry on Cognitive mental processes such as thinking.
How does cognitive neuroscience work?
It uses scanning techniques to locate the Biological basis to cognitive processes in the brain.
The use of techniques such as Positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) help psychologists to understand how the brain supports different cognitive activity. In the last twenty years, the rapid advances in technology and in ways of studying the brain have meant that neuroscientists are now able to study the living brain and localise areas of the brain associated with specific Cognition.
For example Paul Broca identified how damage to a specific area of the brain (frontal lobe) permanently impaired speech production.
Research support for cognitive neuroscience
Research supporting the Cognitive Neuroscience approach demonstrates how memory has a biological basis in the brain.
Sir Colin Blakemore (1988) carried out a case study on Clive Wearing.
Blakemore discovered that damage to Clive Wearing’s brain had been to the hippocampus, which seems to be the part of the brain where the Short Term Memory (STM) rehearses information to encode it into LTM which can explain his memory loss.
Tulving et al were able to show how different types of long term memory are localised in different areas of the brain.
Tulving found that when individuals recalled historical facts blood flow increased in the temporal lobe, whereas when they thought about childhood experiences blood flow increased in the hippocampus.
The activation of the different areas of the brain when recalling facts or episodes suggests a biological basis to the different types of memory in LTM
Scanning techniques have also proved useful in establishing a neurological basis of some symptoms of psychological disorders such as OCD and psychosis.
Research has found sufferers of OCD have elevated levels of activity in the orbitofrontal cortex and the caudate nucleus (located in the basal ganglia).
PET scans of patients with OCD have shown higher levels of activity in the OFC.
The orbitofrontal cortex is part of a brain circuit; one of the functions of this circuit appears to be turning sensory information into thoughts.
This elevated activity can explain why those with OCD experience the cognitive symptoms of irrational and obsessive thought.
More recently computer generated models have been designed to “read” the brain leading to the development of Brain imaging and scanning that can display the processing of patients with psychological disorders and live images of the brain can now be used in talking therapy treatment for such disorders
Allen et al. (2007) scanned the brains of patients experiencing auditory hallucinations and compared them to a control group whilst they identified pre-recorded speech as theirs or others.
Lower activation levels in the superior temporal gyrus and anterior cingulate gyrus were found in the hallucination group, who also made more errors than the control group. We can thus say that reduced activity in these two areas of the brain may contribute to the experience of auditory hallucination.
what is a theoretical model
Scientific models aim to provide simplified, objective representations and descriptions of how our mental processes might work.
