1. Cognitive approach
Lesson 6

2. Open day: student participation
Friday 7 October ( ) 
Saturday 8 October ( )

3. Feedback: research methods exam
Below 7 stay behind.
General feedback:
Experimental designs
Non-experimental method vs. experimental method
Do not use the same word as the question to answer the question (e.g reliability means how consistent the results are NOT how reliable the results are) SHOW YOUR UNDERSTANDING
Spell everything out to the examiner (e.g. qualitative and quantitative comparison)
Using your homework: 5 minutes to make corrections. If unsure – please put up your hand.

4. Homework: MOnday
Download the homework pack: complete Homework A (approaches and research methods)

5. What goes into a research journal?
30 seconds to write down the headings that go into a research journal
Turn your whiteboard over…
30 seconds to name the ethical guidelines used in Psychology

6. Learning objectives List the assumptions of the Cognitive approach
Explain core concepts of the Cognitive approach including theoretical and computer models and the role of schema
Evaluate the Cognitive approach to Psychology

7. What are the main assumptions of the Cognitive Approach?
Starter: Activity
What are the main assumptions of the Cognitive Approach?
In you group, identify which of the cards are the main assumptions for the cognitive approach

8. Cognitive assumptions
A person’s behaviour is determined by the way they think about the world
We can make inferences about what is going on inside someone’s head based on how they are behaving
Faulty thought processes lead to behavioural abnormalities
The human mind processes information much the same as a computer
This approach covers topics such memory, intelligence and perception
Behaviour is influenced by the person’s schemas – a schema is a set of ideas about a particular concept
Acquired through that person’s experience

9. ‘Time’ to Pay Attention

10. ‘Time’ to Pay Attention
Task: You have 1 minute to memorise, IN DETAIL, the picture below.

11. ‘Time’ to Draw Task: You now have 2 minutes to draw,
as accurately as possible, the
picture of the clock you just saw.

12. ‘Time’ to Pay Attention
Task: Swap drawings and rate the drawing on a scale of
1-10 (1 – not very accurate, 10 – very acute).

13. I predict that you drew the four correctly as IV rather than IIII?

14. ‘Time’ to Pay Attention
Here is the original.
How many of you drew the four correctly, as IV rather than IIII?
This is an example of a ‘schema’…
Question:
Why do you think you did this?

15. Each file in the cabinet is a schema
What is a Schema?
Schemas are like filing cabinets, as they organise and contain information.
Your mind
Each file in the cabinet is a schema
You have millions of these files (schemas) in your mind. For example…

16. Restaurant Schema
Question: What do you think will happen if you go to a posh restaurant? How might you use a schema?
Your schema will tell you…

17. Restaurant Schema
Question: Is your schema for this restaurant the same…

18. What is a Schema?
Schemas are ways we organize and store thoughts and information in our minds which are about ourselves and our world around us.
When we take in information we often link it with information we already know.
Question: WHY do we have schemas?
A cognitive framework or concept that helps organise and interpret information.
Schemas can be useful because they allow us to take shortcuts in interpreting the vast amount of information that is available in our environment.
However, these mental frameworks also cause us to exclude pertinent information to focus instead only on things that confirm our pre-existing beliefs and ideas. Schemas can contribute to stereotypes and make it difficult to retain new information that does not conform to our established ideas about the world

19. Why do we have Schemas? They help us organise information in our mind.
Allow us to take short cuts (process information quickly) when dealing with huge amounts of information.
However, schemas distort our memory and how we interpret things…

20. What do you see?
“Remembering is not a passive but rather an active process, where information is retrieved and changed to fit into existing schemas”
(Bartlett)

21. Schema Read the information on Schema from the worksheet.
Write 2 questions you could ask someone on schema from the information
Find a partner. Take it in turns to ask your questions to one another.

22. Theoretical and computer models
Complete the handout using the worksheet provided.

23. Answers to handout
We use the models to provide objective representation of cognitive processes ( how our minds might work).
Theoretical models describe how some aspect of human behaviour works and represents this visually.
The multi store model of memory is an information processing model which shows how information flows through a cognitive system in a linear sequence. The model suggests separate unitary stores of memory.
Computer models compare the human mind to a computer suggesting there are similarities in the way we process information
A central processing unit- the brain, Coding- To turn information into concept, Stores- To hold information
Artificial Intelligence

24. Why are humans not identical to computers?
Too simplistic
Ignores the biological complexity of the brain
Does not consider human emotion
Does not consider motivation
Research shows we are affected by human emotion
(e.g anxiety and memory)
Difficult to objectively measure

25. Machine reductionism
Reductionist To a complex phenomenon (like the human mind and behaviour) psychologist often need to “reduce” it to it’s smallest parts. Machine reductionism Theoretical and computer models use the analogy of machine systems, and the simple components of such machines, as a means to describe and explain behaviour. This is reductionist as it ignores the complexity of human behaviour and more specifically it ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation.

26. How do we evaluate? BUrger
Point
Evidence
Why is evaluation important
Explain….SO WHAT?

27. Evaluation: Burger activity
Comment on the methodology used by the cognitive approach in terms of its strengths and weaknesses
What is ‘machine reductionism’ and why is it a problem?
Has the cognitive approach had any useful applications?
What is ‘soft determinism’ and how can it be considered a strength of the approach?

28. Plenary- on Wall boards
Recall everything you have learnt from todays lesson in the order you learnt them First team to complete the first (accurately) wins