The Cognitive Approach

Cognitive Psychology is made up of 3 areas.

Assumptions of the cognitive approach Mental processes can be studied scientifically. Mental processes can be regarded as information processing. The mind operates in a similar way to a computer analogy to throw light on cognition. Introspection can be a valid scientific method of studying cognitive processes.

Aspects of the organism, including conscious and unconscious thought, act as mediational processes between stimulus and response. Findings and methods of cognitive psychology can be applied to other areas of psychology such as child development, abnormal psychology and applied areas such as sport and the law.

Scientific study of mental processes Sternberg (1996) Illustrates the scientific process in the experiment below. Aim: To determine whether or not people retrieve info from a list by scanning all information, in sequence, until they come across the piece of information they are looking for.

Method: Participants were asked to memorise a list of words of different lengths. Following this participants were asked to say whether or not the words they had learnt were on two other lists of words. With these two lists, one was twice as long as the other. Findings: Participants took longer to identify words they had learnt from the longer list compared to the shorter list.

Conclusions: Because participants take longer to recognise words not on the longer list, they must be scanning the list in a sequential, rather than a random way.

Modern Introspection Farthing (1992) regards the use of introspection as essential for the study of consciousness. Contemporary cognitive psychology remains uncertain. (Why?) Modern introspection falls into 2 categories. Retrospective phenomenological assessment Think aloud reporting (Ericsson and Simon 1980)

Evaluation and Evidence Attempts have been made to quantify the phenomenological reporting. This is an attempt to enter the scientific realm. However, some psychologists have questioned whether or not a person can have access to higher mental processes, particularly those to do with making judgements and decisions.

Cognitive Neuropsychology Over the past 20 years cognitive psychologists have become interested in how damage to different parts of the brain affects both behaviour and cognitive functions. Essentially, it was realised that people who suffered cognitive deficits, such as loss of speech or inability to read the printed word, could provide insights into cognitive functions in normal people.

Assumptions They assume that any cognitive system (reading, writing) is made up of a number of component parts which are called modules (Marr 1982). Each module has a specific function and together they perform larger operations. These modules are located in different parts of the brain. This means that the whole function is not damaged, just a component part. (i.e.) Reading Allowed.

Evaluative Comment This is a complex area of study and one that requires psychologists with a high level of knowledge of the brain. The idea of ‘modules’ is a complex one because in reality brain damage is a complex problem that can be quite extensive. Because of this it is difficult to localise the problems and discover what is the route cause of cognitive deficit.

Strengths Adds cognitive processes to behaviourist ideas. Less deterministic than other approaches. Takes middle position in nature-nurture debate. Uses rigorous methods, e.g. experiment. Ideas applied in cognitive behavioural therapy.

Limitations Not possible to see cognitive processes at work. Not good at explaining why cognitive processes happen as they do. Reductionist. Too much emphasis on brain as a computer. Limitations of using experiment.