Cogntive Assumptions

Question 1

What are the assumptions of the cognitive approach?

Answer 1

Computer analogy
Internal mental processes
Schemas

Question 2

What do cognitive psychologists compare the human mind to?

Answer 2

A computer

Question 3

What is the overall idea of assumption 1 of the cognitive approach (computer analogy)?

Answer 3

It compares how we take in information (input), store it and change it (process) and then recall it when necessary (output)
During the process stage, we actively use the cognitive processes of perception, attention and memory

Question 4

What did Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968 come up with the idea of?

Answer 4

The multi-store model of memory

Question 5

What is the multi-storey model of memory?

Answer 5

Information is input to the brain though senses and moves to the short-term memory store and then to the long-term memory. It is output when required

Question 6

What is the assumption of internal mental processes?

Answer 6

Humans are seen as information processors
The main processes are language, perception, memory and attention
It looks at how various cognitive functions work together to help us make sense of the world

Question 7

What are schemas?

Answer 7

Mental structures (organised packets of information built up through experiences) that represent an aspect of the world such as an object or event

Question 8

What do schemas help with?

Answer 8

They help us make sense of the world, by providing short cuts to identifying things that we come across
Without schemas we would struggle to navigate out way through the world