cognitive approach

key assumptions

behaviour is a product of information processing

the human mind can be compared to a computer input - processing - output

bartlett’s reconstructive memory

our memory is grouped into categories called schemas

schema

hypothetical mental frameworks of knowledge about specific concept

three types of schema development

shortening

rationalisation

confabulation

shortening

remember the general idea of something rather than the details

rationalisation

recall is based on what we already know and any new info is changed to fit your picture of how the world works

confabulation

you don’t recall every aspect of an event so you fill in gaps using existing schema

cognitive bias

shortcuts in the brain that allow understanding to speed up however leads to errors = cognitive bias

three types of cognitive bias

confirmation bias

fundamental attribution error

hostile attribution bias

role of confirmation bias

a frequent error in thinking, people pay attention to and recall information that supports what they already know and ignore information that doesn’t support

role of fundamental attribution error

error in thinking, people locate the cause of events in deliberate acts by others - blame the person not the situation when its someone else.

blame the situation not ourselves when we are the actor

role of hostile attribution bias

HAB is a personality characteristic that is stronger in some people than others

have a biased perception about the intentions of others, interpret signals from others as intentionally hostile, react to others with aggression.

cognitive scripts

scripts are schema for actions that can used to explain routine behaviour

triggered when individuals are in situations that require action

develop with time and experience

priming

priming activates a relevant schema which affects your reactions to events in the environment

positive when a response is quick

negative if its a slower response

there are three types of priming

repetitive

semantic

associative

repetition priming

the more often you experience the prime followed by the situation, the faster the prime activates the relevant schema in the future

associative priming

the prime and the target are regularly experienced together

semantic priming

the prime and the target come from similar categories and share features