jones - the cognitive approach

Question 1

What is the cognitive approach?

Answer 1

Study of how mental processes that mediate between stimulus and response affect behaviour

Question 2

What are key / internal processes?

Answer 2

“Private” operations of the mind that mediate between stimulus and respons

Question 3

What are some examples of key mental processes?

Answer 3

• perception
• memory
• attention
  (- language
• memory)

Question 4

What does cognitive psychology assume?

Answer 4

Mental processes are the key to understanding human behaviour

Question 5

How are mental processes studied?

Answer 5

Objectively and scientifically

Question 6

What is the main method of investigation?

Answer 6

Experiment

Question 7

What are the main assumptions?

Answer 7

1. mental processes can and should be studied scientifically -> cognitive psychologists measure observable behaviour then infer internal mental processes
2. It takes an information processing. The human brain processes information which arrives via senses. The brain, like a computer, receives information inputs, stores and retrieves information
3. affected by a person’s belief or expectation (schemas) which are mental frameworks of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing

Question 8

What does the cognitive approach focus on?

Answer 8

the study of internal mental processes

Question 9

What do cognitive psychologists use?

Answer 9

Inference

Question 10

What is infrence?

Answer 10

the process of drawing reasonable conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour to generate theories and models due to the inability to directly observe mental processes

Question 11

What is the relationship of the cognitive approach to the social learning theory?

Answer 11

Similar but the cognitive approach focuses on just the thinking aspects that that affect a person

Question 12

What does the cognitive approach use?

Answer 12

Theoretical models

Question 13

What are theoretical models?

Answer 13

flow diagrams that…
- map out certain processes
- helps to explain human behaviours
- helps to make inferences about mental processes

Question 14

What are some examples of theoretical models?

Answer 14

• Working memory model
• Multi store model

Question 15

What is the information processing approach?

Answer 15

assumes that the brain can code, store and retrieve information like a computer
-> used to explain mental processes and make inferences

Question 16

What are some similarities within the human brain and the computer? (examples)

Answer 16

• can crash -> disease or damage can cause amnesia
• data input -> sense organs
• hard drive -> long term memory
• soft memory -> short term memory
• serial processing -> people can do more than one task at a time
• output: behaviour responses

Question 17

How is the human brain similar but different to the computer?

Answer 17

Input;
- computer: data is input through the keyboard / mouse / camera / microphone
- humans: the sense organs like the skim, eyes, and ears detect a stimulus

Processing:
- computer: soft memory and hard drive use the information
- humans: information is used from long term memory to understand what the stimulus is

Output:
- computer: an output occurs when a page is printed / speaker makes sound / table is created
- humans: a behavioural response occurs such as a facial expression / answering a question / speaking / writing

Question 18

What is the main difference of computers and human brain?

Answer 18

Computers have no emotions

Question 19

What is a schema?

Answer 19

-cognitive structure
-mental shortcuts
-framework for ones knowledge about people, places, objects and events which are organised into categories
-help us to think and learn more quickly as it allows information to make sense and simplifies interactions

Question 20

What do stereotypes do?

Answer 20

Narrow thinking -> misinterpretation or incorrectly recall information

Question 21

What are the origins of schema?

Answer 21

1923; Jean Piaget
basic units of knowledge which comprehend and interpret situations and are mentally applied in appropriate situations

1932: Fredrick Bartlett
factored into peoples memory of events to help people process and remember information -> information that isn’t placed into a schema will eventually be forgotten

Question 22

What is the impact of schemas on learning and memory?

Answer 22

+ efficiently understand and interpret new information with minimal cognitive effort
- information that fits into an existing schema is more likely to attract attention
(objects that fit into schemas are more well remembered than objects that don’t)

Question 23

How do schemas get us into trouble?

Answer 23

• overlooks and forgets information that don’t fit into schemas
• prejudice: expect behaviours to fit into our schemas which might cause us to misinterpret the actions or intensions of others or maintain incorrect or damaging stereotypes (eg. elderly are mentally compromised)

Question 24

What are some modifications and adjustments to schemas?

Answer 24

Assimilation and accommodation

Question 25

What is assimilation?

Answer 25

Applying schemas we already possess to understand something new

Question 26

What is accomodation?

Answer 26

changing an existing schema or creating a new one as new information doesn't fit into the original

Question 27

What is and example for schema?

Answer 27

Young child: schema would be a dog having a tail and walking on four legs -> when they go to the zoo, they might think the tiger is the dog as it fits into their schema -> after learning the differences, the child will modify their existing dog schema and create a new tiger schema -> as the child grows older and learns more animals, they will develop more animal schemas

Question 28

What is cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 28

scientific study of the influence on brain structures on mental processes

Question 29

What is the frontal lobe?

Answer 29

- controls critical functions (reasoning, decision making, movement, personality etc) - but damage can lead to impaired judgement, personality changes or difficulties with speech and behaviours

Question 30

What is broca's area?

Answer 30

- located in the frontal lobe of the brain (usually in the left hemisphere near the motor cortex) - primary function: control speech production and language processing

Question 31

What is FMRI?

Answer 31

- non invading imaging technique -measures and maps brain activity -detects changes in blood oxygenation -produces detailed images of brain regions involved in various tasks -by using strong magnetic fields and radio waves to monitor oxygen levels in blood and indicating active areas of the brain

Question 32

Where is the episodic memory located?

Answer 32

Hippocampus and medical frontal lobe

Question 33

Where is the semantic memory located?

Answer 33

stored in the anterior temporal lobe and distributed across the cortex

Question 34

What is a pet scan?

Answer 34

-imaging test -shows how tissues and organs are functioning (including the brain) -detect metabolic activity -by tracing a radioactive substance injected into a bloodstream -the scanner detects gamma rays emitted by the tracer creating a map of glucose visage which highlights active regions of the brain

Question 35

What is the parahippocampal gyrus?

Answer 35

-located in the medical temporal lobe (adjacent to the hippocampus) -In OCD, it contributes to overactive threat perceptions and repetitive behaviours

Question 36

What is EEG?

Answer 36

-used by cognitive neuroscientists to analyse brain in the eye witnesses like memory retrieval, attention etc by identifying neutral activities

Question 37

What is a strength of the cognitive approach?

Answer 37

soft deterministic approach -> recognises that we are free to think before we respond to a stimulus -> it is less deterministic than other approaches which see humans as just responding to environmental stimuli like robots (eg. biological approach - hard deterministic approach - doesn't acknowledge that we think before we act) -> therefore the approach recognises that we only operate on the basis of what we know but we do have free will so it is less determinist

Question 38

What is a weakness of the cognitive approach?

Answer 38

machine reductionism -> the computer analogy has been criticised for reducing human behaviour down to just machines (machine reductionism) -> research: human memory might be affected by emotional factors (eg. anxiety in eyewitness testimony) -> therefore, this implies that the cognitive approach ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system and how this affects our ability to process information

Question 39

What is a strength for cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 39

scientific and objective methods -> highly controlled methods of study to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes at work -> involved the use of lab experiments to produce reliable and objective data -> this means that the study of the mind has established a credible scientific basis

Question 40

What is a weakness for cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 40

-> lack external validity -> cognitive psychologists are only able to infer mental processes from the behaviour they observe in their research -> too abstract and theoretical in nature -> experimental studies of mental processes are often carried out using artificial stimuli (eg. word lists in tests of memory) -> cannot apply to everyday life