CLOA

Outline the principles that define the cognitive level of analysis. (8 marks)

There are three fundamental principles that define the cognitive level of analysis, which help research into cognition. Cognition refers to a process that is based on one’s mental representation of the world, such as images, words and concepts. People likewise have different experiences and therefore each individual will have different mental representations of the world. The cognitive level of analysis is based on how mental processes such as perception, attention, language, memory and thinking in the brain processes information. It concerns the way we take in information from the outside world, how we make sense of that information and what use we make of it.

The three principles that define the cognitive level of analysis is that human beings are information processors and that mental representations guide behaviour, mental processes can and should be studied scientifically by developing theories and by using a variety of research methods and that social and cultural factors affect cognitive processes. Psychologists believe that mental processes and stored representations of the world determine behaviour and are central to human experience. They see the mind as a complex machine-where they believe that is useful to model mental processes using an information-processing approach whereby; the information is examined from the outside world is received and encoded. Storage and representation of this information to ourselves, in ways in which this information is manipulated and used by the individual and how we output information back into the world to be received by others. The second principle of the cognitive level of analysis states that the mind can be studied scientifically by developing theories and by research methods. Testable theories can be developed and derived from unobservable cognitive structures and inferences made. These theories can be tested using a scientific and appropriate research method of experimentation. Thus, the mind can be studied scientifically. A third principle that defines the cognitive level of analysis is that cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors. The schema theory is the cognitive theory of processing information. The information that a person is exposed to can be determined by the society and the culture that they are in. People are in different societies and culture, different people are exposed to different information, therefore individuals will have different schemas. Social and cultural factors are factors that is dependent on culture.

Explain how principles that define the cognitive level of analysis may be demonstrated in research. (8 marks)

There are three fundamental principles that define the cognitive level of analysis, which help research into cognition. The first principle…