Cognitive Approach

Question 1

Origins

Answer 1

The cognitive approach began to revolutionise psychology in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, to become the dominant approach (I.e. perspective) in psychology by the late 1970s.

Question 2

Assumptions

Answer 2

The Cognitive Approach believes that internal mental processes can be investigated using scientific methods and principles; well controlled laboratory studies can investigate what we are thinking.
Mental processes are ‘private ’ and can’t be observed. Cognitive psychologists study them indirectly by making inferences about what is going on inside people’s head.
Cognitive psychologists claim that our internal mental processes are affected by schema that we have formed through experiences.
Cognitive psychologists assume that the internal mental processes of the mind work in a similar way to a computer.
Cognitive psychologists claim that the mind is like an information processing system; inputting, storing and retrieving data. They use theoretical models of memory to explain how our mind works.

Question 3

What is the Schema

Answer 3

Schema are the mental representation of experience and knowledge and understanding
They help us predict what will happen in the world based on past experience.
We can process a lot of information quickly using schemas.

Question 4

Cognitive neuroscience

Answer 4

This is the scientific study of relating brain structure on our mental processes.
Advances in brain scanning technology means scientists have been able to describe the neurological basis of mental processing.
E.g research into memory has linked episodic and semantic memories to the prefrontal cortex in the brain.

Question 5

Practical applications of cognitive neuroscience

Answer 5

▪ Use of scanning/imaging techniques eg to locate different types of memory in different areas of the brain leading to treatment for memory problems
▪ Use of scanning/imaging techniques to study mental processing patients with depression or OCD or in children with autism or dyslexia.
▪ Use of imaging techniques and angiography to study the effects of normal ageing on the brain or to observe the effects of stroke on the brain
▪ Use of computer simulations/computational modelling to test theories or hypotheses about mental processes such as attention, memory, problem solving etc
▪ Use of computer simulations to help in the treatment of schizophrenia
▪ Use of computer modelling to develop voice recognition programmes
▪ Use of eye-tracking/motion-tracking to study visual word processing and reading

Question 6

Strengths of cognitive neuroscience

Answer 6

• The methods it uses are highly scientific – objectivity and control ensure that studies are reliable
• The findings from studies carried out by cognitive psychologists have provided the basis for therapies and strategies to help people with behavioural problems through CBT for example.
• From its early beginnings the cognitive approach has developed into the most dominant approach within psychology and further developments in technology and science have enabled cognitive psychologists to develop more sophisticated models to explain the role of internal mental processes in behaviour
• Cognitive psychology has influenced and integrated with many other approaches and areas of study to produce, for example, cognitive neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI).
• Real-life applications include Eyewitness memory & amp; cognitive
based therapies.

Question 7

Weaknesses of cognitive neuroscience

Answer 7

• The lab experiments used to study behaviour with the cognitive approach can be criticised for being too artificial (lack ecological validity), which makes it difficult to generalise the findings to real-world situations.
• As we cannot observe what is going on inside someone’s mind, any inferences made within the cognitive approach rely on observing behaviour. So any findings could have been influenced by demand characteristics and investigator effects, reducing the validity and reliability of the study
• Comparing the human mind to a computer is too simplistic. The information processing model attempts to reduce the complex structure of the brain into separate stores and ignores the social and biological factors that affect behaviour. It’s machine reductionist.
• The comparison has limits though as computers do not forget things as humans and do not have emotions like humans.
• Furthermore this comparison allows us to describe how humans do things but not why (their motivation).
• Soft determinism

Question 8

How do they use computer models to make inferences

Answer 8

Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of the mind as an information processor (computer).
Cognitive psychologists try to build up cognitive models of the information processing that goes on inside people’s minds, including perception, attention, language, memory, thinking and consciousness.
Models can be used to provide testable theories about mental processing and these can be studied scientifically and inferences made.
cognitive processes are examples of theoretical models e.g multi store model of memory and working memory model

Question 9

How have computer models influenced the cognitive approach

Answer 9

Developments in computer science has influenced the cognitive theory as analogies are often made between how a computer works and how e process information.
Based on this computer analogy cognitive psychology is interested in how the brain inputs, stores and retrieves information. The idea of information processing was adopted by cognitive psychologists as a model of how human thought works. This has led to a focus on the way information is ‘coded’ - input, coding, storage.