4. The cognitive approach

Inference

Inference

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

Schema

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

Theoretical models

Simplified, objective and descriptive representations of how our minds might work

Information processing (computer) model

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

Cognitive neuroscience

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

What are the 5 assumptions of the cognitive approach?

• 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 that the mind works in a similar way to a computer: inputting, storing and retrieving data

• Mental processes can be scientifically studied using laboratory experiments

Expand on internal mental processes

Behaviour can be explained though Internal mental processes. Cognitive meditating factors occur between stimulus and response.

Input from env- processing info (internal mental processing is different)- output (behavioural responde)

Expand on theoretical models

• what are they and how are they helpful?

• Give some examples

• Cognitive approach uses scientific models to provide simplified, objective representations and descriptions to explain mental processes we cannot see.

• Descriptive versions of how some aspect of the human mind and behaviour works, which may be represented visually

• For example, the information processing approach, which suggests information flows through the cognitive system in a series of stages including input, storage and retrieval

• E.g. MSM, WMM, Ellis’ ABC model and Beck’s cognitive triad

inference

• why do cognitive psychologist use inference?

• Example of research which used inference

• internal mental processes (e.g. how people perceive, store, manipulate and interpret information) can’t be studied directly as they cannot be observed. Therefore, they must be studied indirectly by inferring what is going on as a result of directly observed behaviour

• Inference leads to psychologists developing theories and models about mental processes (I.e. MSM)

• For example, Gathercole and Baddeley rely on inference from dual task experiments (describing 3D letter F while simultaneously following a light or doing a verbal task) to suggest working memory has independent slave systems, and that they have a limited capacity but can process information simultaneously if the nature of the tasks is different

Expand on schemas

• Schemas are a cognitive framework/mental structure that helps organise and interpret information.

• A Schema is made from past experience, and contains knowledge based on experience. Every time we experience something new we assimilate this into our schemas.

• Schemas act as a guide to behaviour

• We have many different schemas e.g. event schema, self-schema, person Schema etc.

• schemas affect what we notice, how we interpret things and how we make decisions and act.

Why are schemas helpful?

• schemas allow us to take shortcuts in interpreting the vast amount of information in our environment

• Therefore schemas prevent us from becoming overwhelmed by environmental stimuli

Why are schemas unhelpful?

• Shortcuts we take can be wrong, this could lead to prejudice based on stereotypes

• We tend to pay more attention to information that fits our held schemas- which can mean we ignore contradictory information meaning our views are not challenged (attentional bias)

• We may misremember something because it didn’t fit our held schemas or we didn’t pay enough attention to it in the first place- we exclude pertinent information to instead only focus on things that confirm our pre existing beliefs and ideas. Makes it difficult to retain new informations that does not conform to our pre-existing ideas about the world

What is assimilation?

Applying an existing schemas to a new situation or object

• when faced with new information you make sense if it by referring to information you already have and try to fit the new information into the schema you already have

What is accommodation?

Forming a new schema distinct from the existing schema

Examples of schemas- Beck and CBT

Beck’s negative triad

• Beck’s negative triad suggests that depression is due to traumatic childhood experiences, such as continual parental criticism and/or rejection by others.

• These experiences lead to negative cognitive schemas of the world, self and future developing, e.g. expecting to fail in situations similar to those present when the schemas were formed.

• These expectations lead to depression

Cognitive therapies emphasising the roles of schemas (I.e Beck) are of great value in therapy

• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be used to identify and challenge someone’s negative schemas to help them develop more positive schemas to help treat negative or distorted thinking.

Expand in computer models

• Cognitive psychologists use computer models to compare the mind to a computer

• They are software simulations of internal mental processes, created in collaboration with computer sciences

• They use concepts of coding, concepts of a central processing unit and the use of stores to link the human mind to the processing of a computer

• These models have been useful in the development of artificial intelligence, which attempts to make computers simulate cognitive performance

Cognitive neuroscience

• what is it

• Aims

• How? I.e. techniques used

• Impact

• Example

• Scientific study of the influence of brain structure, function and chemistry on cognitive mental processes, such as thinking

• aims to explore the neurobiological basis of thought processes and disorders

• It uses scanning techniques to locate the biological basis to cognitive processes in the brain. Techniques such as Positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) help psychologist to understand how the brain supports different cognitive activity.

• In the last 20 years, the rapid advances in technology and in ways of studying the brain have allowed neuroscientists to study the living brain and localise areas of the brain associated with specific cognition

• E.g. Broca identified how damage to the left frontal lobe permanently impaired speech production

Cognitive neuroscience AO3- research 5 examples

1. Demonstrates that memory has a biological basis in the brain. Clive Wearing- suffered damage to hippocampus due to a viral infection, which seems to be the part of the brain where STM rehearses information to encode it into LTM which can explain his memory loss. Could not remember episodic memory but could remember procedural memory- localised in different areas

2. Tulving et al, different types of long term memory are localised in different areas of the brain. When individuals recalled historical facts blood flow increased in the temporal lobe, back of the brain, whereas when they thought about childhood experiences blood flow increased in the hippocampus, front of the brain. Suggests a biological basis to the different stores of LTM

3. OCD- research has show that sufferers of OCD have elevated levels of activity in their 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 OFC is part of a brain circuit: one of the functions of this circuit seems to be turning sensory information into thoughts. This elevated activity explains why OCD sufferers experience the cognitive symptoms of irrational and obsessive thought.

4. 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.

5. Allen et al.- Scanned the brains of patients experiencing auditory hallucinations and compared them to a control group whilst they identified pre-recorded speech as their own or others. Lower activation levels in the superior temporal gyrus and anterior cingulate gyrus were found in the hallucination group, who also had more errors. Reduced activity in these areas of the brain may contribute to the experience of auditory hallucination.

Cognitive neuroscience AO3- issues and debates

1. Nature vs nurture: nature as suggests that people are born prone to a certain way of mental processing/disorder. HOWEVER nurture because suggests that intervention (I.e. CBT) can change behaviour and shape the brain- brain plasticity

2. Free will vs determinism: free will as suggests that we can change mental processing and therefore behaviour through support and biology is not destiny. Contradicts biological determinism . HOWEVER, suggests that we are born with a certain biology that leads to certain mental processing and behaviour and that our experience shapes the brain and behaviour

Cognitive neuroscience AO3- applications

Has allowed for early identification and therefore early intervention in autism for children as young as 3 months old. Early intervention can change behaviour and shape brain

Cognitive approach AO3- research pros

P- emphasises scientific methods. The use of experimental methods in a lab environment using controlled conditions allows psychologists to discover relationships between variables

E- e.g Loftus and Palmer’s research into effect of leading questions of EWT- ‘how fast were the cars going when they ____ into each other?’ Investigated schemas behind words (crash=fast, bumped=light touch)

Completed in a carefully controlled lab environment, standardised, high internal validity and highly scientific

E- emergence of cognitive neuroscience allows psychologists to use technology to dramatically enhance the scientific methods used in researching cognition, e.g. PET scanning techniques to evidence the biological basis of mental processes. This improves the objectivity of the research support for the role of cognition and reduces the reliance on making inferences about how the mind works.

L- conclusions draw on mental processing have more scientific credibility- strength of cognitive approach

Cognitive approach AO3 research - negatives

P- experimental research into cognitive approach tends to lack ecological validity as they involve tasks which do not mimic real life experiences.

E- for example, artificial and controlled word list memory tests tell us little about what we can or cannot recall naturally e.g. why some childhood memories are forgotten

E- one example of this: Loftus and Palmer’s research into effect of leading questions of EWT- criticised due to artificial task involving ps watching video of car crash, an experience free of emotion and distraction- would be present when witnessing such an event in real life. Also not observable, can’t see thoughts so relies on inference

L- difficult to generalise findings of such tests to real life situations therefore the research and approach can be criticised for lacking ecological validity and failing to explain behaviour which occurs in the real world.

Cognitive approach AO3- issues and debates

P-although their are similarities between the human mind and the operations of a computer, the computer analogy has been criticised due to its machine reductionism.

E- reducing the complexity of the human mind and behaviour to the processing an 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 computers are not able to do.

E- furthermore, it fails to consider the influence of emotion and motivation on human cognition which may affect the way we process information and our behaviour. E.g. the role of anxiety on human memory.

L- limits the ability of computer models to fully explain the complexity of human behaviour, challenging the usefulness of this assumption of the cognitive approach.

Cognitive approach AO3- applications

P- cognitive approach has had a useful contribution to the development of psychological treatments

E- the cognitive approach to psychopathology has helped to explain the link between abnormal behaviour and faulty thinking (e.g. the role of negative thinking in the development of mood disorders, such as depression)

E- this has contributed to the development of treatments such as CBT which have been found to be effective at reducing symptoms long term. CBT- Ellis’ ABCDE model

• Activating event

• Belief about event- either rational or irrational

• Consequence of the belief about event

• Disputing faulty thinking:empirical, logical

• Effective new beliefs replace the irrational ones

This uses schemas and internal mental processes in the development of mental health treatments

L- this demonstrates the usefulness of the cognitive approach and its contribution to the development of psychological treatments.