Evaluating the cognitive approach

Created by: Francesca C
Created on: 26-05-19 16:54


	Evaluating the cognitive approach
	Advantages Mediational processes - focus on the important 'processes' that occur between stimulus and responses. Behaviourists dd not attempt to investigate what goes on inside the 'black box', cognitive psychologists have gone some way to explaining how important mediational processes e.g. perception and memory affect the way we respond to the world around us. This has helped explain practical elements of human behaviour. Cognitive psychologists look at ways of improving memory using retrieval cues. Research can show us why we need to make shopping lists before going to the local supermarket. Important contributions - the cognitive approach has influenced many areas of psychology. Usefully applied in therapy e.g. CBT to succesfully treat disorders e.g. depression. It has also been applied to the field of developmental psychology. Theories about how children's thinking develops have guided teaching practices in schools. Piaget 1970 developed one such theory, suggesting that children's thinking is not the same as that of adults. He suggested that children aged around 8 or 9 years old cannot think in the abstract. If they want to solve a mathematical problem they need to see it in a concrete form such as manipulating counting sticks. Piaget's ideas had a major effect on teaching in primary schools because teachers realised it was important to use concrete examples with younger children. Cognitive psychology has advanced memory research and one application is in the field of eye witness testimony. The work of Elizabeth Loftus has shown how eye witness accounts can be easily distorted by post-even info and this had had an impact on police interviewing techniques such as the abolishment of leading questions during interviewing. Scientific approach - lends itself to objective and controlled scientific research. Memory research has in the main been conducted under strict laboratory conditions and in more recent times this has involved using brain scanning techniques e.g. PET scans and MRIs to pinpoint specific areas of the brain that are involved in short and long term memory. Cognitive neuroscience and it is a field devoted to pinpointing the exact biological mechanisms involved in our cognitive processes. Therefore, in a scientific objective manner, researchers are able to establish the exact responsibilities of different areas of the brain in relation to our cognitive process. Cognitive neuroscience is also useful in trying to understand what the brain does when it is 'at rest', effectively studying 'mid-wandering'. The cognitive approach has thus emerged as an extremely scientific field in psychology, in which causal relationships between emotions, cognitions and behaviours can be confidently predicted.	Disadvantages Nature and nurture - while the cognitive approach does consider the influence of both internal and external factors on behaviour e.g. processes within the mind are 'internal' and the role of experience in the formation of schemas is 'external'. Fails to consider important elements of nature and nurture. The role of genes in human cognitions is ignored yet research into intelligence has consistently looked at the influence of genes through the use of twin studies. Important social and cultural factors are often ignored which seems unrealistic. Within the field of cognitive development key theorists such as Piaget failed to consider the role of culture and gender on the development of thinking in children. Deterministic approach - schemas are important assumption of the cognitive approach. People acquire such schemas through direct experience. Piaget suggested that cognitive development is essentially the development of schemas. At a young age a child might call everything with 4 legs and hair a dog. Later the child learns various related schemas, one for a dog and one for a cat etc. Another important way in which we acquire schemas is through social interactions. We acquire stereotypes about people and situations such as the belief that women with blonde hair are stupid but fun or that people with glasses are intelligent. These are cultural stereotypes and such stereotypes or schemas may determine the way that we interpret situations. Mechanistic approach - portrays human behaviour as being like that of a machine. The cognitive approach is based on the behaviour of computers so it is inevitable that the outcome would be a rather mechanistic view of human behaviour. Raises philosophical issues. Main objection to such mechanistic explanations is that they ignore social and emotional factors. This can be illustrated in the cognitive perspective on mental illness. A depressed person many have faulty thinking patterns that can be changed however the cause of the depression may lie in significant life events e.g. going through a divorce. Whilst changing thinking patterns may help the person this doesn't change the environmental stimuli or the social situation causing the emotions that they feel. This mechanical view also ignores the important role that emotions play influencing cognitive processes and this is a problem with humans being likened to computers. A computer is not influenced by emotion, a computer will recall info exactly as it is inputed, this is not the same for humans.
	Evaluation The value of retrieval cues - research has shown that people can remember more than they think they know - if they are given the right cue. Tulving and Pstoka 1971 conducted an experiment that demonstrated this. They gave particpants 6 different world lists to learn, each containing 24 words. Each list was divided into 6 lists, there were 36 categories such as kinds of tree and names of precious stones. After all the lists had been presented, the participants were asked to write down all the words they could remember 'free recall'. Then they were given cues - the names of the different categories and asked to recall the words again. 'cued recall'. The key finding was that people remembered about 50% of the words when initially tested in the free recall condition but this rose to 70% when given cued recall. It shows that there is often more in your head than you think there is, if someone would just give you the right cues.

Evaluating the cognitive approach

Advantages

Mediational processes - focus on the important 'processes' that occur between stimulus and responses. Behaviourists dd not attempt to investigate what goes on inside the 'black box', cognitive psychologists have gone some way to explaining how important mediational processes e.g. perception and memory affect the way we respond to the world around us. This has helped explain practical elements of human behaviour. Cognitive psychologists look at ways of improving memory using retrieval cues. Research can show us why we need to make shopping lists before going to the local supermarket.
Important contributions - the cognitive approach has influenced many areas of psychology. Usefully applied in therapy e.g. CBT to succesfully treat disorders e.g. depression. It has also been applied to the field of developmental psychology. Theories about how children's thinking develops have guided teaching practices in schools. Piaget 1970 developed one such theory, suggesting that children's thinking is not the same as that of adults. He suggested that children aged around 8 or 9 years old cannot think in the abstract. If they want to solve a mathematical problem they need to see it in a concrete form such as manipulating counting sticks. Piaget's ideas had a major effect on teaching in primary schools because teachers realised it was important to use concrete examples with younger children. Cognitive psychology has advanced memory research and one application is in the field of eye witness testimony. The work of Elizabeth Loftus has shown how eye witness accounts can be easily distorted by post-even info and this had had an impact on police interviewing techniques such as the abolishment of leading questions during interviewing.
Scientific approach - lends itself to objective and controlled scientific research. Memory research has in the main been conducted under strict laboratory conditions and in more recent times this has involved using brain scanning techniques e.g. PET scans and MRIs to pinpoint specific areas of the brain that are involved in short and long term memory. Cognitive neuroscience and it is a field devoted to pinpointing the exact biological mechanisms involved in our cognitive processes. Therefore, in a scientific objective manner, researchers are able to establish the exact responsibilities of different areas of the brain in relation to our cognitive process. Cognitive neuroscience is also useful in trying to understand what the brain does when it is 'at rest', effectively studying 'mid-wandering'. The cognitive approach has thus emerged as an extremely scientific field in psychology, in which causal relationships between emotions, cognitions and behaviours can be confidently predicted.

Disadvantages

Nature and nurture - while the cognitive approach does consider the influence of both internal and external factors on behaviour e.g. processes within the mind are 'internal' and the role of experience in the formation of schemas is 'external'. Fails to consider important elements of nature and nurture. The role of genes in human cognitions is ignored yet research into intelligence has consistently looked at the influence of genes through the use of twin studies. Important social and cultural factors are often ignored which seems unrealistic. Within the field of cognitive development key theorists such as Piaget failed to consider the role of culture and gender on the development of thinking in children.
Deterministic approach - schemas are important assumption of the cognitive approach. People acquire such schemas through direct experience. Piaget suggested that cognitive development is essentially the development of schemas. At a young age a child might call everything with 4 legs and hair a dog. Later the child learns various related schemas, one for a dog and one for a cat etc. Another important way in which we acquire schemas is through social interactions. We acquire stereotypes about people and situations such as the belief that women with blonde hair are stupid but fun or that people with glasses are intelligent. These are cultural stereotypes and such stereotypes or schemas may determine the way that we interpret situations.
Mechanistic approach - portrays human behaviour as being like that of a machine. The cognitive approach is based on the behaviour of computers so it is inevitable that the outcome would be a rather mechanistic view of human behaviour. Raises philosophical issues. Main objection to such mechanistic explanations is that they ignore social and emotional factors. This can be illustrated in the cognitive perspective on mental illness. A depressed person many have faulty thinking patterns that can be changed however the cause of the depression may lie in significant life events e.g. going through a divorce. Whilst changing thinking patterns may help the person this doesn't change the environmental stimuli or the social situation causing the emotions that they feel. This mechanical view also ignores the important role that emotions play influencing cognitive processes and this is a problem with humans being likened to computers. A computer is not influenced by emotion, a computer will recall info exactly as it is inputed, this is not the same for humans.

Evaluation

The value of retrieval cues - research has shown that people can remember more than they think they know - if they are given the right cue. Tulving and Pstoka 1971 conducted an experiment that demonstrated this. They gave particpants 6 different world lists to learn, each containing 24 words. Each list was divided into 6 lists, there were 36 categories such as kinds of tree and names of precious stones. After all the lists had been presented, the participants were asked to write down all the words they could remember 'free recall'. Then they were given cues - the names of the different categories and asked to recall the words again. 'cued recall'. The key finding was that people remembered about 50% of the words when initially tested in the free recall condition but this rose to 70% when given cued recall. It shows that there is often more in your head than you think there is, if someone would just give you the right cues.

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Evaluating the cognitive approach