3) cognitive approach

What is the workings of the human mind often compared too?

A computer. Input → process → output

how do cognitive psychologist believe you can gain insight into mental processes?

They can be inferred from an individual’s behaviour

Why do cognitive psychologists need to infer indirectly?

Because cognitive processes (e.g. memory, thinking and attention) are internal and cannot be directly observed. Psychologists therefore infer them from observable behaviour and performance.

What’s the computer analogy?

The human mind is compared to a computer and human beings are seen as information processors who absorb information from the outside world, interpret, store and retrieve it

How’s the brain like a computer?

Some part of the brain forms network, some parts work sequentially, one process must finish before another starts. Some parts work in parallel, information travels along lots of paths at the same time.

What is a limitation of the computer analogy?

Humans are often influenced by emotional and motivational factors, which does not affect computers. Plus humans have potentially unlimited but unreliable memory whereas computers have limited but reliable memory. Humans have free will but computers are programmed to respond in a specific way

What is a schema?

A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing which are developed through experience. They contain all the information you know about an object, action or concept

How does a schema help prevent cognitive overload?

Schemas help us organise and interpret information which allows us to process vast amount of information

What happens to the schema when information is consistent with the schema?

It is assimilated into the schema and so strengthens it

What happens to information when it’s inconsistent with the schema?

Accommodations occurs and the schema changes in order to resolve the problem

What is event schema?

Ideas about what happens in a given scenario

What are self schemas?

They contain information about ourselves based on physical characteristics and personality which effect how you would act in a given situation

The rat man study, Bugelski and Alampay (1962)

Two groups of participants were shown in a sequence of pictures. Either a number of different faces or a number of different animals. They were then shown an ambiguous figure (the rat man), participants who saw a sequence of faces were more likely to perceive the figure as a man and vice verse for the people who saw sequence of rats

Why does schemas lead to prejudice or bias

Stereotypes can cause a bias in the way we process information, we are more likely to pay attention to information we can assimilate and we are more likely to ignore information we would have to accommodate

How does the schema have real world applications?

The negative self schema in depression - Beck (1974). Depressed people may have acquired a negative self schema as a result from early rejection or criticism, it’s activated when the person encounters a new situation that resembles the original conditions of the schema. Schema helps us explain depression.

How does understanding schema improve the reliability of eye witness testimony?

When giving an EWT any memory gaps are likely to be filled with what is expected in that situation. The cognitive interview techniques tried to reduce the impact of schemas on memory by changing the order of of testimony.

Why is the cognitive approach a less simplistic account of behaviour than the behaviourist approach?

Because it considers the impact of mental processes of behaviour, which is overlooked by other approaches like behaviourism

Why may the cognitive approach suffer form machine reductionism?

Because it assumes everyone processes information the same way and ignores the e effect of other factors such as emotion, personality or biology, which could all affect behaviour.

Why may research into the cognitive approach lack ecological validity?

Research is often carried out in overly controlled artificial environments meaning it’s difficult to generalise findings from other experiments to behaviour in the real world