Learning approach: Cognitive approach

Assumptions:

• The approach focuses on studying internal mental processes and believe they should be studied scientifically. As a result, the cognitive approach have studied including memory, perception and thinking. They believe the focus should be on how individual’s process information and how it affects behaviour.

• Cognitive psychologists prefer objective, controlled and scientific methods for investigating mental processes, believing they can and should be studied scientifically. Because internal mental processes cannot be observed, they ise the results of their investigations as the basis for making inferences about mental processes.

• The approach believes human minds work like computers in that it has an input from our senses, then processes and produces an output, such as a language of specific behaviour.

The role of Schemas:

• One way a cognitive psychologist might explain behaviour is in terms of schema driven processing.

• Schemas are a cognitive framework or concept that helps organise and interpret information containing beliefs & expectations on a topic.

• Schemas are formed through experience and become more detailed and sophisticated through experience. They act as a mental shortcut/framework for the interpretation of incoming information.

• Schemas allow us to process lots of information quickly - like a mental shortcut so we do not ger overwhelmed with information.

• However schemas can also distort out interpretations of information - leading to perceptual errors (predicting important things incorrectly).

The use of theoretical and computer models:

• Theoretical models: One way in which cognitive psychologists study internal mental processes is through theoretical models. One important theoretical model is the information processing approach. This approach suggests that information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages that include input, storage, and retreival. An example of a theoretical model is the multi store model of memory by Atkinson and Shiffrin.

Cognitive neuroscience:

• A recent area within cognitive psychology is cognitive neuroscience. This is the scientific study of the influence of the brain structure in mental processes

• Advances in brain imaging techniques has enabled researchers to understand how the brain supports a variety of different cognitive activities and emotions illustrating which parts are active during specific tasks.

• For example Tulving was able to show how different types of long term memories were located on different sides of the prefrontal cortex.