Psychology - Cognitive Approach

Gregor’s theory of perception

Perception is a constructive process - the brain fills in gaps and interprets sensory input based on expectations, not just raw data

Cognitive psychology approach is focussed on…

how our internal mental processes affect our behaviour

When did it emerge?

In the 1950s

What did it respond to?

The behaviourists’ failure to acknowledge active mental processes

The processes mediate between -

stimulus and response

Paradigm Shift

It is a major change in the theories, methods, and principles of the discipline, usually caused by new evidence that contradicts the current accepted thinking

they are known as ‘scientific revolutions’

Why did the cognitive approach emerge?

• The development of better experimental methods

• Comparison between human and computer. Using computers allowed psychologists to try to understand the complexities of human cognition by comparing it with computers + AI

Cognitive model

Input —→ Mediational Process —→ Output

Inferences

• Cognitive psychologists cannot ‘observe’ these processes so they study them ‘indirectly’ by making assumptions about what is going on in peoples’ minds based on their behaviour

Key assumptions -

• Scientific study of the mind as an INFORMATION PROCESSOR

  • Concerns how we take in info from the outside world, and how we make sense of that info

• Focus on studying mental processes inc. how people perceive, think, remember, learn, solve problems and make decisions

• Cognitive psychologists try to build up cognitive models of the info processing that goes on inside people’s minds, inc. perception, attention, language, memory, thinking and consciousness

  • This helps us to make INFERENCES about behaviour

• Abnormal behaviour e.g. depression, are the result of distorted thinking + faulty information processing

two ways cognitive psychologists study the mind

1. scientific measures: lab experiments that are objective + test behaviours in controlled environments

2. use of brain scanning techniques to map the brain e.g. fMRI

Nomothetic approach

• Attempts to generalise people

• Uses objective (numerical) knowledge

• Based on numerical data/data that can be categorised

Idiographic approach

• Focuses on recognition of uniqueness

• Uses subjective experiences

• Based on study of uniqueness of individual (case study)

Does the cognitive approach apply a nomothetic or idiographic approach?

It applies a nomothetic approach to discover human cognitive processes, but have also adopted idiographic techniques through using case studies e.g. HM

What else is the cognitive approach?

• Reductionist

• Suggesting that all behaviour, no matter how complex, can be reduced to simple cognitive processes, like memory/perception

Who came up with the Serial Position Effect?

Glanzer and Cunitz

What is the effect?

• Words from the start (primacy effect) are remembered as they are rehearsed and transferred to LTM

• Words from the end (recency effect) are remembered as they are still in STM when they are asked to recall

Who came up with the Selective Attention theory?

Simons and Chabris

What is the theory?

Simons and Chabris found that we miss a lot of what is in our visual field due to inattention

What do models do for the cognitive approach?

They generate predictions of human behaviour which can then be tested

Schema

• A mental/cognitive framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing as they help us organise and interpret information.

• They are ‘packages’ of ideas that are developed from experience

• As you get older, your schemas become more detailed + sophisticated as they are formed through experiences with the world

How can schemas be useful?

• They allow us to process lots of info quickly, which is useful as a mental short-cut that prevents us from being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli

• They also allow us to predict what will happen based on our experiences

How can they be unhelpful?

Sometimes schemas can distort our interpretations of sensory info, leading to perceptual errors

What do we possess schemas for?

• Objects e.g. a rattle

• Self-schemas - the way we view ourselves

• Social roles e.g. a police officer

• Situations e.g. interview (known as scripts)

Ebbinghaus theory about forgetting?

The Forgetting Curve

What is it about?

• All semantic memories are subject to a negatively exponential forgetting curve

• Once learnt, memories are permanent, but our ability to recall them diminishes over time

The McGurk Effect

• A perceptual phenomenon where visual cues from lip movements change what a person hears, even when the sound is contradictory

• It demonstrates how the brain integrates conflicting visual + auditory info to create a single, best-guess perception

• This cross-modal illusion shows that what we hear is not always purely based on the sound we are hearing, but it is influenced by what we see as well

AO3 not done yet