The Cognitive Approach

What is the cognitive approach?

‘Cognitive‘ has come to mean ‘mental processes‘ so this approach is focused on how our mental processes (eg thoughts, attention, ect) affect behaviour.

In direct contrast to the behaviourist approach, what does the cognitive approach argue?

That internal mental processes can, and should be studied scientifically. As a result, the cognitive approach has investigated those areas of human behaviour that were neglected by behaviourists, such as memory, perception and thinking. These processes are private, and so cannot be directly studied.

How do cognitive psychologists study internal mental processes?

‘Indirectly, by making inferences about what is going on inside people’s minds on the basis of behaviour.

What are internal mental processes?

Private operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response.

What can cognitive processing often be affected by?

A person’s beliefs or expectations, which are often referred to as schema.

What are schema?

‘Packages‘ of ideas and information developed through experience. They act as a mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information received by the cognitive system.

What schema are babies born with?

Simple motor schema for innate behaviours such as sucking and grasping.

What happens to our schema as we get older?

Our schema become more detailed and sophisticated. Adults have developed mental representations for everything from the concept of psychology to a schema for what happens in a restaurat.

What does schema enable us to do?

Process lots of information quickly and this is useful as a sort of mental shortcut that prevents us from being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli.

What else may schema do?

Distort our interpretations of sensory information, leading to perceptual errors.

What models do cognitive psychologists use to help them understand internal mental processes?

Theoretical and computer models. In reality, there are overlaps between these two models but theoretical models are abstract whereas computer models are concrete things.

What is one important theoretical model?

The information processing approach, which suggests that information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages including input, storage and retrieval. This is based on the way that computers function.

What do computer models involve?

Actually programming a computer to see if such instructions produce a similar output to humans. If they do, we can suggest that similar processes are going on in the human mind.

What have such computational models of the mind proved to be useful in?

‘Thinking machines‘ or AI.

What is cognitive neuroscience?

The scientific study of those biological structures that underpin cognitive processes. Mapping brain areas to specific cognitive functions has a long history in psychology. As early as the 1860s, Broca had identified how damage to an area of the frontal lobe could permanently impair speech production.

With advances in brain imaging techniques such as fMRI and PET scans, what has happened in the last 25 years?

Scientists have been able to systematically observe and describe the neurological basis of mental processes.

What have scanning techniques also proved useful in?

Establishing the neurological basis of some mental disorders.

Why has the focus of neuroscience recently expanded?

To include the use of computer-generated models that are designed to ‘read‘ the brain. This has lead to the development of mind mapping techniques known as ‘brain fingerprinting‘. One possible application of this could be to analyse the brain patterns of eyewitnesses to determine whether they are lyting in court.

What are the strengths of the cognitive approach?

• Scientific methods.

• Real-world application.

How is scientific methods a strength of the cognitive approach?

It uses objective, scientific methods; cognitive psychologists employ highly controlled and rigorous methods of study so researchers are able to infer cognitive processes at work. This has involved the use of lab studies to produce reliable, objective data. In addition, the emergence of cognitive neuroscience has enabled the two fields of biology and cognitive psychology to come together to enhance the scientific basis of study.

What does scientific methods mean for the cognitive approach?

That the study of the mind has a credible scientific basis.

What is the counterpoint to the scientific methods?

As cognitive psychology relies on the inference of mental processes, rather than direct observation of behaviour, it can occasionally suffer from being too abstract and theoretical in nature. Similarly, research studies of mental processes are often carried out using artificial stimuli that may not represent everyday experience.

What does the counterpoint to scientific methods mean?

That therefore, research on cognitive processes may lack external validity.

How is real-world application a strength of the cognitive approach?

It has practical application; the cognitive approach is probably the dominant approach in psychology today and has ben applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts. For example, cognitive psychology has a important contribution in the field of artificial intelligence and the development of ‘thinking machines‘.(robots). These are exciting advances that may revolutionise how we live in the future. Cognitive principles have also been applied ot the treatment of depression and improved the reliability of EWT.

What does the real-world application mean for the cognitive approach?

It supports its value.

What is the limitation of the cognitive approach?

Machine reductionism.

How is machine reductionism a limitation of the cognitive approach?

It is based on machine reductionism; there are similarities between the human mind and the operations of a ‘thinking machine‘ such as a computer (inputs and outputs, storage systems and the use of a central processor). However, the computer analogy has been criticised. Such machine reductionism ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system, and how this may affect our ability to process information.

What does machine reductionism suggest about the cognitive approach?

That machine reductionism may weaken the validity of the cognitive approach.