Cognitive approach

Cognitive Approach Psychology

In looking at the psychology of aggressive behaviour, for example, do psychologists only look at the behaviour in response to an event? What about the thoughts that accompanied the aggression? One psychological approach that emphasises internal mental processes is the cognitive approach.

Fig. 1 The cognitive approach highlights how internal processes influence behaviour.

When behaviourism dominated psychology in the early twentieth century, the emphasis on observable behaviour made it difficult to research cognition, resulting in dissatisfaction with the approach. This discontent, combined with the 1960s development of computers, led to the cognitive approach in psychology.

The Study of Internal Mental Processes

Cognitive psychologists hold that internal mental processes underpin behaviour and stress the value of conducting empirical research on these difficult-to-observe processes.

The cognitive approach explains human behaviour as affected mainly by internal mental processes. From a cognitive approach, psychologists study these mental processes to understand better how we decide, solve problems, create ideas, remember information, and use language, which all relate to our behaviour.

To illustrate the study of internal mental processes in cognitive psychology, here's an example of a famous study on perception by Simons and Chabris (1999).

The Emergence of Cognitive Neuroscience

We've seen an example of how cognitive psychology uses behavioural data (e.g., performance in mental tasks) to examine cognitive processes such as perception. However, these approaches are pretty indirect.

Over the past years, there have been significant developments in gathering more direct evidence about internal mental processes. With the development of brain-scanning machines, the ability to search for the biological basis of internal mental processes also has advanced.

This encouraged the formation of cognitive science in 1956, followed by recognising neuroscience as a discipline in 1971. Efforts to close the gap between cognitive science and neuroscience resulted in cognitive neuroscience.

Although the advancement of brain imaging techniques is incredible, it doesn't come without limitations. One limitation of brain imaging techniques is that they do not show whether certain brain areas help perform a task.

Memory and the Role of Schema

Memory is one of the main areas of cognitive psychology. Investigations through the cognitive approach lead to essential discoveries on memory and the role of schema.

There are several ways in which the cognitive approach explains memory:

1. Our memory consists of different stores, short-term and long-term memory, as proposed in the multi-store model of memory by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968).
2. In the levels-of-processing (LOP) approach by Craik and Lockhart (1972), memory is a product of information processing, for which there are three levels: structural processing (e.g., arrangement of words), phonetic processing (e.g., the sound of words), and semantic processing (e.g., meaning of words). This approach focuses on how well we remember information based on the level of processing.
3. The cognitive approach also explains memory by looking at its reconstructive aspect. Explaining memory's reconstructive nature emphasises what happens during memory storage and retrieval. Bartlett (1932) suggested that memory undergoes reconstruction as influenced by our schema.

The role of schemas is:

• To help us predict events in everyday situations (e.g., what happens in school).
• To create meaning when we read or listen to something.
• To help in the process of visual perception.

Cognitive Approach Assumptions

We've seen how the cognitive approach within psychology highlighted the scientific investigations of internal mental processes. In this section, we'll look at the main assumptions of the cognitive approach.

• In cognitive psychology, the approach assumes that empirical studies of internal mental processes are possible.
• In cognitive psychology, the approach also assumes that the mind works similarly to a computer.
• The cognitive approach in psychology holds that individuals are information processors where there is input, storage, and retrieval of data.
• The cognitive approach within psychology also holds that internal mental processes lead to behaviours.
• Cognitive psychologist believes that our schemas influence our internal mental processes.

We've seen how cognitive psychologists measure accuracy and performance to draw inferences about internal mental processes. Aside from that, the cognitive approach in psychology also uses theoretical and computer models to explain internal mental processes.

Use of Theoretical and Computer Models

Cognitive psychology uses models to make assumptions about how the mind works and then, in turn, experiments to test these assumptions. Cognitive psychologists use the models to explain their findings if the results support the model's predictions.

There are two kinds of models theoretical and computer models.

How does the cognitive approach draw inferences about human cognition using theoretical models? Here's an example using the working memory model.

According to Baddeley and Hitch (1974), the central executive component functions to control attention, but the exact nature of this component remains unclear. To better understand the capacity of the central executive, we can make predictions using the model's assumptions. One assumption is that the central executive has a small storage.

Hitch and Baddeley (1976) predicted that the simultaneous performance of a verbal thinking test and remembering six random digits would involve the central executive, which can impact the performance of the verbal thinking test. The results were consistent with the model.

How do computer models draw inferences about mental processes? Let's look at Newell's and Simon's (1972) General Problem Solver, one of the earliest computer models in cognitive psychology. They designed the program by gathering verbal reports and encoding a specific problem-solving approach in the program. Testing the program showed that the General Problem Solver and humans worked similarly in problem-solving.

The findings also suggested that humans use simple strategies to solve problems, which was one of the assumptions of the computer program. Another interesting result is that the model can better remember previous outcomes of a problem but perform poorly in planning future actions.

Cognitive Approach: Strengths and Weaknesses

This section will discuss the cognitive approach's strengths and weaknesses.

The following are the strengths of the cognitive approach:

• The cognitive approach uses scientific and controlled experiments that produce reliable results and can be replicated, such as MRI scan results.

• The cognitive approach provides practical applications for understanding internal mental processes, such as schemas.

• Studying cognitive processes helps us understand some psychological conditions, such as depression. Beck (1967) proposed that the negative schemas (a cognitive approach concept) about oneself, the world, and the future cause depression.

• This approach supports the application of cognitive behavioural therapy to treat conditions like depression effectively.

The following are the weaknesses of the cognitive approach:

• The cognitive approach is criticised for reducing human activity to computer levels and ignoring the role of emotions or feelings that may influence behavioural outcomes. For example, according to Yerkes & Dodson (1908), anxiety can affect our understanding of events and memory.

• It ignores the genetic factors causing certain mental disorders, such as schizophrenia. Thus, it is considered reductionist as it over-simplifies and reduces explaining behaviour to one component.

• The use of lab experiments reduces the ecological validity of the approach, as participants undergo complicated tests in an artificial environment.

Cognitive Approach Examples

With a deeper appreciation and understanding of internal mental processes, the cognitive approach provides practical applications:

Fig. 2 The cognitive approach has been applied to educational settings.

Concepts from the information processing model and schema helped improve learning and teaching strategies in education settings. Teachers can use the cognitive approach to increase understanding and retention of information and to make learning more meaningful by connecting new information with previously learned material.

The cognitive approach can also provide insights into the reliability of eyewitness testimony aiding police work, such as cognitive interviews.

This involves mentally recreating the setting in which the crime took place or going back to the original location to improve memory retrieval.

Cognitive Behavioural Approach

Another significant development from cognition observation is the cognitive behavioural approach or cognitive behavioural therapy. Aaron Beck developed this type of approach in the 1960s. Cognitive behavioural therapy helps people change their behaviour by examining their thoughts and feelings and then challenging those thoughts and feelings.

The cognitive behavioural approach recognises three elements of cognition that play a role in psychological disorders:

• Automatic thoughts refer to immediate thoughts or perception about an event that affects emotions and behaviour.
• Cognitive distortions are ways of thinking that usually lead to wrong conclusions, such as emotional reasoning, over-generalisation, or catastrophising.
• Underlying beliefs are our schemas that influence what we think about an event.