Cognitive Approach

Definition: Cognitive = knowing. Refers to the way in which knowledge is gained, retained and used.

Stimuli ---------> Information Processing ---------------> Response

• Psychologists extend this idea and say our behaviour is determined by the way we process information

Assumptions:

• Developed against the behaviourist approach
• It is the events within a person that must be studied for behaviour to be fully understood
• Psychologists believe it is possible to study internal mental processes
• Concerned with how thinking shapes our behaviour

Internal Mental Processes:

 - Humans are seen as information processes. The main concern is of how information recieved from the senses is processed by the brain and how this affects the way we behave. 

Processes Studied:

• Perception
• Attention
• Memory
• Language
• Thinking
• Problem Solving

Schema

• Def: Mental structures that represent as an aspect…