"Cognitive Approach in Psychology" 16-mark essay plan

"Cognitive Approach in Psychology" 16-mark essay plan

Introduction: - cognitive approach focuses on how people perceive, store, manipulate and interpret information. It views the processes and cognition as a determinant of human’s behaviour. It refers to the mental processes of an individual and includes attention, perception, memory, reasoning, judgement, imaging, thinking and speech. It looks at internal processes to understand behaviour.

AO1:

• Focuses on the examination of mental process
  • E.g. perception, memory, attention, consciousness
• Processes are internal so they can’t be studied directly
  • Their operation must be inferred from the observation and measurement of human behaviour
• Cognitive scientists use theoretical models.
• These models represent complex, conceptual processes so that their components can be better understood.
  • e.g. the multi-store memory model - presents a picture of memory based on an information-processing analogy.
• Theoretical models also provide a basis for research
• Schema theory emphasises how perception and memory are shaped by cognitive…