The Cognitive Approach
Cognitive Psychology looks at how we interpret the world:
Whilst the behavioural approach studies observable behaviour, the cognitive approach does the opposite- it looks at the internal workings of the mind and explains the behaviour through cognitive processes
Cognitive psychologists try to explain behaviour by looking at our perception, language, attention and memory
Cognitive psychology uses experimental procedures and methods to test behaviour scientifically
The mind can be compared to a computer, so it is a reductionist approach
Computers and computer models are often used to explain how we think and behave. Humans are treated as information processors (computers) and behaviour is explained in terms of information processing (how computers deal with information)
Computer and theoretical models are used to explain and make inferences about the mental processes that lead to particular behaviours since they can’t be observed directly
For example, cognitive psychologists have deduced that memory can be divided into short-term memory and long-term memory based on studies that show the primacy and recency effects. These experiments have led to theoretical models, such as the multi-store model of memory
Cognitive psychologists use three main research methods:
Ecological validity is the measure of how much the result of an experiment reflects what would happen in natural settings. If a result has low ecological validity, it might work fine in the lab. But try to use it to explain real-life behaviour, and you’ll find yourself up the creek without a paddle.
Laboratory Experiment: A lot of research in cognitive psychology happens in laboratories. This is very scientific and reliable as it is possible to have great control over variables in a lab. However, often this type of research doesn’t tell us much about the real world- it has low ecological validity
Field Experiments: They take place in natural situations (e.g. studies of memory or attention in a school environment), so they have more ecological validity, but there’s less control of most of the variables
Natural experiments: They involve making observations of a naturally occurring situation. The experimenter has little control over the variables, and participants can’t be randomly assigned to conditions. Natural experiments have high ecological validity, but they’re not massively reliable, as uncontrolled (or confounding) variables can affect the results
The principles of the cognitive approach:
Cognitive psychologists have outlined several general principles:
Our mental systems have a limited capacity- The amount of information that can be processed will be influenced by how demanding the task is and how much other information is being processed
A control mechanism oversees all mental processes- This will require more processing power for new tasks, leaving less available for everything else
There is a two-way flow of information: We take in information from the world, process it, and react to it. We also use our knowledge and experiences to understand the world
Cognitive Psychology developed as the computer age developed:
As computers developed in the 1950s and 1960s, the analogy between the human brain and a computer was formed
People began to see similarities in how computers and humans make sense of information
Computer terms are often used in cognitive psychology.
Cognitive psychologists use computer models to represent particular features of the human mind
The brain is described as a processor (the thing that makes things happen)- it has data input into it and output from it
Some parts of the brain form networks (interconnected parts)
Some parts can work sequentially (info travels along just one path). This means one process must finish before another starts. This occurs in more demanding, or unknown tasks
And they can work in parallel too (info travels to and fro along lots of paths at the same time). This is more likely to happen for familiar tasks
The computer and human systems follow the same route- data input, processing and data output. For example:
Data input- Data processing- Data output
Computer system: Information coming in via a keyboard-Signals passed through wires-Computer processor- Signals passed through wires- Information output to a monitor
Human system: Information coming in from the world through sense organs- Signals passed through neurons- Brain- Signals passed through neurons- Information passed back out for action
Be careful though… there are differences between humans and computers that make computer models less useful:
Humans are often influenced by emotional and motivational factors- something computers aren’t affected by
Humans have an unlimited but unreliable memory, whereas computers have a limited but reliable memory
Humans also have free will (the ability to choose between decisions) which computers don’t
A schema helps you organise all the information you know:
A schema contains all the information you know about an object, action or concept- e.g the schema of a human face contains the information that a face has two eyes, a mouth and a nose, and the schema of riding a bike contains all the movements you’d need to make. Schemas help you to organise and interpret information and experiences
When information is consistent with a schema, it is assimilated into the schema, it is assimilated into the schema. For example, a child’s schema for an apple may be an edible, green, hard sphere. Every time the child sees a green apple, the experience is assimilated and the schema is strengthened
When information is inconsistent with a schema, accommodation occurs and the schema has to change in order to resolve the problem. So if a child sees a red apple, their apple schema has to accommodate this new information- it becomes an edible, hard sphere that is either green or red
There are lots of different types of schema:
Role schemas: These are ideas about the behaviour which is expected from someone in a certain role, setting or situation. E.g your schema for a doctor might be someone who is intelligent, respectable, sensible, etc
Event schemas: These are also scripts. They contain information about what happens in a situation. E.g. When you go to a restaurant you know you’ll usually need to read a menu and place an order
Self-schemas: These contain information about ourselves based on physical characteristics and personality, as well as beliefs and values. Self-schemas can affect how you act- e.g if your self-schemas says that you are health-conscious, you are likely to eat well and exercise regularly
There are some problems with schemas:
Sometimes schemas can stop people from learning new information
For example, prejudice and stereotypes can be an outcome of schemas. A schema which which holds expectations or beliefs about a certain subgroup of people may bias the way we process incoming information. This means we may be more likely to pay attention to information we can easily assimilate, and ignore information that would involve changing our schemas to accommodate
The emergence of cognitive neuroscience:
Although the cognitive approach started in the 1950s and 1960s, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the influence of neuroscience really took hold. With modern brain imaging techniques and procedures, cognitive neuroscience started to emerge
Cognitive neuroscience is an approach to psychology which maps human behaviour to brain function. Brain-imaging techniques allow psychologists to discover when and where things happen in the brain in relation to people’s behaviour at the time
Cognitive Neuroscience uses lots of different methods
Cognitive neuroscientists use a variety of methods to study cognition. They include:
Lesion studies: Looking at people with brain damage to see how behaviour is affected
Electrophysiology: Using electric and magnetic fields to measure brain activity and brain waves
Neuroimaging: Pinpointing areas of the brain which are active when a task is performed. For example, PET scans have been used to show the brain areas that are most active during memory tasks
The cognitive approach has strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths:
It considers mental processes which are often overlooked in the other approaches
It has had a big influence on the development of therapies, e.g. cognitive behaviour therapy
Weaknesses:
Research is often carried out in artificial situations (laboratories, using computer models) and the role of emotion and influence from other people is often ignored. For these reasons, some argue that the results aren’t valid in the real world
Cognitive psychology fails to take individual differences into account by assuming that all of us process stuff exactly the same way
Cognitive Psychology looks at how we interpret the world:
Whilst the behavioural approach studies observable behaviour, the cognitive approach does the opposite- it looks at the internal workings of the mind and explains the behaviour through cognitive processes
Cognitive psychologists try to explain behaviour by looking at our perception, language, attention and memory
Cognitive psychology uses experimental procedures and methods to test behaviour scientifically
The mind can be compared to a computer, so it is a reductionist approach
Computers and computer models are often used to explain how we think and behave. Humans are treated as information processors (computers) and behaviour is explained in terms of information processing (how computers deal with information)
Computer and theoretical models are used to explain and make inferences about the mental processes that lead to particular behaviours since they can’t be observed directly
For example, cognitive psychologists have deduced that memory can be divided into short-term memory and long-term memory based on studies that show the primacy and recency effects. These experiments have led to theoretical models, such as the multi-store model of memory
Cognitive psychologists use three main research methods:
Ecological validity is the measure of how much the result of an experiment reflects what would happen in natural settings. If a result has low ecological validity, it might work fine in the lab. But try to use it to explain real-life behaviour, and you’ll find yourself up the creek without a paddle.
Laboratory Experiment: A lot of research in cognitive psychology happens in laboratories. This is very scientific and reliable as it is possible to have great control over variables in a lab. However, often this type of research doesn’t tell us much about the real world- it has low ecological validity
Field Experiments: They take place in natural situations (e.g. studies of memory or attention in a school environment), so they have more ecological validity, but there’s less control of most of the variables
Natural experiments: They involve making observations of a naturally occurring situation. The experimenter has little control over the variables, and participants can’t be randomly assigned to conditions. Natural experiments have high ecological validity, but they’re not massively reliable, as uncontrolled (or confounding) variables can affect the results
The principles of the cognitive approach:
Cognitive psychologists have outlined several general principles:
Our mental systems have a limited capacity- The amount of information that can be processed will be influenced by how demanding the task is and how much other information is being processed
A control mechanism oversees all mental processes- This will require more processing power for new tasks, leaving less available for everything else
There is a two-way flow of information: We take in information from the world, process it, and react to it. We also use our knowledge and experiences to understand the world
Cognitive Psychology developed as the computer age developed:
As computers developed in the 1950s and 1960s, the analogy between the human brain and a computer was formed
People began to see similarities in how computers and humans make sense of information
Computer terms are often used in cognitive psychology.
Cognitive psychologists use computer models to represent particular features of the human mind
The brain is described as a processor (the thing that makes things happen)- it has data input into it and output from it
Some parts of the brain form networks (interconnected parts)
Some parts can work sequentially (info travels along just one path). This means one process must finish before another starts. This occurs in more demanding, or unknown tasks
And they can work in parallel too (info travels to and fro along lots of paths at the same time). This is more likely to happen for familiar tasks
The computer and human systems follow the same route- data input, processing and data output. For example:
Data input- Data processing- Data output
Computer system: Information coming in via a keyboard-Signals passed through wires-Computer processor- Signals passed through wires- Information output to a monitor
Human system: Information coming in from the world through sense organs- Signals passed through neurons- Brain- Signals passed through neurons- Information passed back out for action
Be careful though… there are differences between humans and computers that make computer models less useful:
Humans are often influenced by emotional and motivational factors- something computers aren’t affected by
Humans have an unlimited but unreliable memory, whereas computers have a limited but reliable memory
Humans also have free will (the ability to choose between decisions) which computers don’t
A schema helps you organise all the information you know:
A schema contains all the information you know about an object, action or concept- e.g the schema of a human face contains the information that a face has two eyes, a mouth and a nose, and the schema of riding a bike contains all the movements you’d need to make. Schemas help you to organise and interpret information and experiences
When information is consistent with a schema, it is assimilated into the schema, it is assimilated into the schema. For example, a child’s schema for an apple may be an edible, green, hard sphere. Every time the child sees a green apple, the experience is assimilated and the schema is strengthened
When information is inconsistent with a schema, accommodation occurs and the schema has to change in order to resolve the problem. So if a child sees a red apple, their apple schema has to accommodate this new information- it becomes an edible, hard sphere that is either green or red
There are lots of different types of schema:
Role schemas: These are ideas about the behaviour which is expected from someone in a certain role, setting or situation. E.g your schema for a doctor might be someone who is intelligent, respectable, sensible, etc
Event schemas: These are also scripts. They contain information about what happens in a situation. E.g. When you go to a restaurant you know you’ll usually need to read a menu and place an order
Self-schemas: These contain information about ourselves based on physical characteristics and personality, as well as beliefs and values. Self-schemas can affect how you act- e.g if your self-schemas says that you are health-conscious, you are likely to eat well and exercise regularly
There are some problems with schemas:
Sometimes schemas can stop people from learning new information
For example, prejudice and stereotypes can be an outcome of schemas. A schema which which holds expectations or beliefs about a certain subgroup of people may bias the way we process incoming information. This means we may be more likely to pay attention to information we can easily assimilate, and ignore information that would involve changing our schemas to accommodate
The emergence of cognitive neuroscience:
Although the cognitive approach started in the 1950s and 1960s, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the influence of neuroscience really took hold. With modern brain imaging techniques and procedures, cognitive neuroscience started to emerge
Cognitive neuroscience is an approach to psychology which maps human behaviour to brain function. Brain-imaging techniques allow psychologists to discover when and where things happen in the brain in relation to people’s behaviour at the time
Cognitive Neuroscience uses lots of different methods
Cognitive neuroscientists use a variety of methods to study cognition. They include:
Lesion studies: Looking at people with brain damage to see how behaviour is affected
Electrophysiology: Using electric and magnetic fields to measure brain activity and brain waves
Neuroimaging: Pinpointing areas of the brain which are active when a task is performed. For example, PET scans have been used to show the brain areas that are most active during memory tasks
The cognitive approach has strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths:
It considers mental processes which are often overlooked in the other approaches
It has had a big influence on the development of therapies, e.g. cognitive behaviour therapy
Weaknesses:
Research is often carried out in artificial situations (laboratories, using computer models) and the role of emotion and influence from other people is often ignored. For these reasons, some argue that the results aren’t valid in the real world
Cognitive psychology fails to take individual differences into account by assuming that all of us process stuff exactly the same way
