The Cognitive Approach

What are the basic assumptions of the cognitive approach?

1. Internal mental processes should be studied scientifically (as opposed to behaviourists).
2. Abnormality is a result of faulty thinking.
3. The human mind is like an information processor.

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What are internal mental processes?

Internal mental processes are the ‘private’ operations of the mind that mediate between stimulus and response e.g., memory, perception, attention, problem-solving.

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How do cognitive psychologists study internal mental processes?

Because internal mental processes are private, cognitive psychologists study them indirectly by making inferences about what is going on in an individual’s mind by observing their behaviour.

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What are schema?

Schema are mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence the interpretation of incoming information. They tell us what to expect and how to act accordingly.

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How can schema distort interpretations of sensory information?

Schemas can lead us to exclude things which do not fit in to our established ideas of the world or help us to fill in gaps in the absence of information, which can lead to stereotyping.

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What research is evidence for the role of schema?

Bugelski and Alampay (1962) showed that schema influenced the participants' expectations of sensory stimuli as they perceived the 'rat-man' as similar to the images they had seen before - of faces or animals.

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Explain the computer model of memory.

Using a computer analogy, information is inputted through the senses, encoded into memory and combined with previously stored information to complete a task.
Long term memory is equivalent to the hard disk and working memory is equivalent to RAM.

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Explain the information processing model.

The information processing model suggests that information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages – input (environmental stimuli through the senses), processing (analysis, retrieval, decision making), output (behaviour).

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What model shows how theoretical models are refined over time?

The working memory model was first proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974), initially with three main sections, but a fourth section was added by Baddeley (2000).

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What is cognitive neuroscience?

Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of how brain structures are involved in internal mental processes.

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What non-invasive neuroimaging techniques are used by cognitive neuroscientists?

Non-invasive neuroimaging techniques such as PET and fMRI scans show when different areas of the brain are active.

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How do fMRI scans work?

fMRI scanners detect changes in blood oxygenation around the brain. Neurons in areas being supplied with more oxygen-rich blood are more active.

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How do EEGs work?

EEG uses electrodes on the scalp to pick up electrical activity across the head coming from billions of neurons in the brain.

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What study found the areas of the brain associated with guilt?

Burnett et al (2009) found that when people feel guilty, the medial prefrontal cortex is active, an area associated with social emotions.

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What study found the areas of the brain associated with depression?

Davidson et al (2002) found that depression is associated with dysfunctional circuits in the pre-frontal cortex and limbic system

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What study found that humans do not have free will?

Libet et al. (1983) showed unconscious preparatory activity in the brain preceding awareness of the will to act.

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What is a practical application of cognitive neuroscience?

Cognitive neuroscience allows us to distinguish a patient in a vegetative state from a patient with locked-in syndrome.

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What study distinguished patients in a vegetative state from patients with locked-in syndrome?

Monti et al. (2010) gave patients two mental imagery tasks. Patients who were able to perform motor imagery tasks had locked-in syndrome but had been misdiagnosed as being in a vegetative state.

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What are the strengths of the cognitive approach?

The cognitive approach uses scientific methods, has practical real-world applications and is based on soft determinism.

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What scientific methods does the cognitive approach use?

The cognitive approach uses highly controlled lab studies and brain scand such as PET and fMRI scans.

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What are the practical applications of the cognitive approach?

The cognitive approach has contributed to thethe field of artificial intelligence, as well as cognitive behavioural therapy for depression, and improving reliability of eyewitness testimony (cognitive interviews).

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What is soft determinism?

Soft determinism argues that human behaviour is determined by internal and external factors, but we can also exert our free will at times.

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What are the limitations of the cognitive approach?

The cognitive approach uses computer models which are based on machine reductionism and its research studies may lack ecological validity.

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What is machine reductionism?

Machine reductionism presents human minds as information processing systems.

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How does the research of the cognitive approach lack ecological validity?

Research of mental processes often involves contrived tasks which do not represent natural everyday experiences, such as memorising lists of words.

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The Cognitive Approach

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