PAPER TWO: APPROACHES
TOPIC: Cognitive approach
A01:
- Focuses on how our mental processes affect behaviour
- Believe mental processes can/should be studied scientifically, well controlled lab
studies can investigate what we are thinking
- Make inferences about what is going on in people’s minds on the basis of their
behaviour indirectly
Theoretical & Computer models:
Theoretical models = MSM
Information processing approach:
1. Input (comes from environment via senses, encoded by individual)
2. Processor/storage (info once encoded processed/stored)
3. Output (behavioural response following on from the processing)
- Uses computer models, mind compared to a computer (computer analogy), suggests
there are similarities in the way info is processed
Schemas:
- Packages of ideas/info developed through experience
- Mental framework of beliefs/expectations that influence cognitive processing
- Enable us to process info quickly, useful as a mental short-cut that prevents us from
being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli
- May distort our interpretations of sensory info, leading to perceptual errors
Cognitive neuroscience:
- Scientific study of biological structures that underpin cognitive processes
- Investigate how damage in particular brain regions affects cognitive functioning
(Broca’s area = speech impairment)
- Expanded recently to include computer-generated models designed to ‘read’ the
brain
- Development of mind mapping techniques known as ‘brain fingerprinting’
A03:
X - Reductionist
Criticised for ignoring the influence of emotions/motivation on our cognitive system
Ignores other factors that affect our mental processing abilities, doesn’t provide a complete
picture of the human mind/behaviour
X - Lacks external validity
Experimental studies of mental processes use methods such as learning lists of words in
order to see how memory works
Artificial tasks, don’t represent how everyday memory works
✓ - Methods used
Highly controlled lab experiments = reliable/objective data, cognitive neuroscience = brain
scanning techniques
Study of the mind/behaviour established using scientific, valid, replicable, reliable methods
✓ - Real world application
, CBT developed due to the thinking errors shown to occur in people with depression,
successful treatment for this mental illness
Suggests high validity, successful treatment developed based on a cognitive theory
TOPIC: Cognitive approach
A01:
- Focuses on how our mental processes affect behaviour
- Believe mental processes can/should be studied scientifically, well controlled lab
studies can investigate what we are thinking
- Make inferences about what is going on in people’s minds on the basis of their
behaviour indirectly
Theoretical & Computer models:
Theoretical models = MSM
Information processing approach:
1. Input (comes from environment via senses, encoded by individual)
2. Processor/storage (info once encoded processed/stored)
3. Output (behavioural response following on from the processing)
- Uses computer models, mind compared to a computer (computer analogy), suggests
there are similarities in the way info is processed
Schemas:
- Packages of ideas/info developed through experience
- Mental framework of beliefs/expectations that influence cognitive processing
- Enable us to process info quickly, useful as a mental short-cut that prevents us from
being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli
- May distort our interpretations of sensory info, leading to perceptual errors
Cognitive neuroscience:
- Scientific study of biological structures that underpin cognitive processes
- Investigate how damage in particular brain regions affects cognitive functioning
(Broca’s area = speech impairment)
- Expanded recently to include computer-generated models designed to ‘read’ the
brain
- Development of mind mapping techniques known as ‘brain fingerprinting’
A03:
X - Reductionist
Criticised for ignoring the influence of emotions/motivation on our cognitive system
Ignores other factors that affect our mental processing abilities, doesn’t provide a complete
picture of the human mind/behaviour
X - Lacks external validity
Experimental studies of mental processes use methods such as learning lists of words in
order to see how memory works
Artificial tasks, don’t represent how everyday memory works
✓ - Methods used
Highly controlled lab experiments = reliable/objective data, cognitive neuroscience = brain
scanning techniques
Study of the mind/behaviour established using scientific, valid, replicable, reliable methods
✓ - Real world application
, CBT developed due to the thinking errors shown to occur in people with depression,
successful treatment for this mental illness
Suggests high validity, successful treatment developed based on a cognitive theory
