Psychology | Cognitive approach to understanding behaviour

Welcome to the Cognitive Approach!

Hello future Psychologists! This chapter is where we turn the spotlight inwards. The Cognitive Approach is essentially the study of how the mind works—how we think, remember, perceive, and make sense of the world. Think of your brain as the world's most incredible computer; cognitive psychology tries to write the manual for that computer.

Don't worry if concepts like 'schema' seem strange at first. We will break them down using simple analogies and everyday examples, making sure you can apply these theories to real-life behaviour and ace your essays!

Why is the Cognitive Approach important?

• It helps us understand how memory errors occur (crucial for eyewitness testimony).
• It explains how we structure knowledge (schema theory).
• It forms the basis for cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), one of the most effective treatments for mental health issues.

Section 1: Core Principles of the Cognitive Approach

The cognitive approach is based on several key assumptions about human behaviour. These principles must be understood before you dive into the theories.

Principle 1: Mental processes can be scientifically studied.

Before the 1950s, many psychologists (like behaviourists) thought that internal thoughts were unobservable and therefore could not be studied scientifically. Cognitive psychologists disagree.

• They argue that while we can't see the mental process directly, we can observe behavioural outputs and use these observations to make inferences about internal processing.
• Inference means using evidence to draw logical conclusions about things we cannot directly measure (like thoughts or memory traces).
• Example: If you are given a long list of words to memorize and you consistently forget the items in the middle, psychologists infer that the working memory system has limited capacity or duration.

Principle 2: The mind is an information processor.

This is the famous computer analogy. Cognitive psychologists view the mind as a system that operates similarly to a computer.

Input (Perception/Sensory Data) → Processing (Thinking/Memory/Schemas) → Output (Behavior/Action)

• Our sensory organs take in information (input).
• The brain manipulates and stores this information (processing).
• We then act based on that processing (output).
• This allows researchers to build models (like the Multi-Store Model of Memory) to visualize and test these internal structures.

Principle 3: Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors.

While the computer analogy is useful, humans are not just hardware! Our thinking processes are shaped by the environment we grow up in and the knowledge we share with others.

• Culture influences what we pay attention to, what we value, and how we categorize the world (this is where schema theory ties in).
• Example: How you describe a funeral or wedding depends entirely on your cultural background; this cultural knowledge is stored as a specific type of schema (a script).

Section 2: Cognitive Concepts - Schema Theory

One of the most essential concepts in cognitive psychology is the Schema. This concept was popularized by Sir Frederic Bartlett (1932).

What is a Schema?

A schema is a mental framework, a cognitive structure that organizes an individual's knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about particular aspects of the world (e.g., people, events, places, or objects).

Analogy: Think of a schema as a mental file folder or a blueprint. When you encounter a new situation, your brain pulls out the relevant file folder and uses it to quickly process the new information.

The Role of Schemas

Schemas help us:

1. Organize knowledge: They store information efficiently.
2. Predict the future: They tell us what is likely to happen next (e.g., a "restaurant script" tells you to wait to be seated, order, eat, and pay).
3. Guide behaviour: They influence how we interact with the world.
4. Make sense of experience: They allow us to filter out irrelevant information.

How Schemas Affect Memory (Bartlett, 1932)

Bartlett’s classic study, War of the Ghosts, demonstrated that memory is not like a video recording; it is reconstructive. Schemas actively shape memory retrieval.

Key Findings (The process of reconstruction):

• Assimilation: The story was changed to become more culturally familiar to the participants (e.g., replacing "canoes" with "boats"). The unfamiliar was merged into the familiar schema.
• Leveling: The story became shorter with each retelling as participants omitted details they found confusing or irrelevant.
• Sharpening: Participants often exaggerated or added details that fit their existing schemas, making the remaining details seem more prominent.

Key Takeaway: Schema theory shows that prior knowledge influences encoding (what we pay attention to), storage, and retrieval (how we remember) of information. This suggests memory is unreliable because we often fill in the blanks using our schemas.

Section 3: Cognitive Models of Memory

Models are theoretical representations used by psychologists to explain complex processes. We focus on two core models of memory.

Model 1: The Multi-Store Model (MSM) - Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)

The MSM proposes that memory consists of three separate, permanent stores, and information flows linearly between them. This model emphasizes structure.

1. Sensory Register (SR)

• Function: Holds sensory information (sight, sound, touch) very briefly.
• Duration: Less than 1 second.
• Capacity: Very large.
• Transfer: If we pay attention, the information moves to the Short-Term Store (STS).

2. Short-Term Store (STS)

• Function: Active working space for current thoughts.
• Duration: About 15-30 seconds (unless rehearsed).
• Capacity: Very limited, usually 7 ± 2 chunks of information.
• Transfer: If the information is rehearsed (maintained), it moves to the Long-Term Store (LTS).

3. Long-Term Store (LTS)

• Function: Permanent storage of all knowledge and skills.
• Duration: Potentially infinite (lifetime).
• Capacity: Unlimited.
• Encoding: Primarily semantic (meaning).

Limitation of MSM: It is too simple. It treats the STS as a single, passive box, which doesn't reflect how we actively process different types of information (visual, auditory) simultaneously.

Model 2: The Working Memory Model (WMM) - Baddeley & Hitch (1974)

The WMM was proposed as an updated, more dynamic model of the Short-Term Store, describing it as an active system, or "working memory," rather than a passive store.

The Components of the WMM:

1. The Central Executive (CE): The "boss" or "CEO" of the system.
   • Function: Attention control and coordination. It allocates tasks to the slave systems and manages the flow of information.
   • Capacity: Extremely limited.
2. The Phonological Loop (PL): Deals with auditory information (sound/speech).
   • It has a Phonological Store (the "inner ear," holding spoken words) and an Articulatory Control System (the "inner voice," rehearsing information to keep it active).
3. The Visuospatial Sketchpad (VSS): Deals with visual and spatial information (what things look like and where they are).
   • This is your "inner eye," allowing you to navigate or visualize a mental map.
4. The Episodic Buffer (EB - Added later): Acts as a temporary store that integrates information from the CE, PL, and VSS, and links working memory to Long-Term Memory (LTS).

Key Advantage of WMM: It explains dual-task performance. We can perform a verbal task (PL) and a spatial task (VSS) simultaneously without significant interference, proving the STS is made up of separate components.

Section 4: The Reliability of Cognitive Processes

Although our cognitive processes are usually effective, they are not always perfect. Psychological research has highlighted key instances where our memory can be easily distorted or manipulated.

Topic A: Reconstructive Memory and Eyewitness Testimony (EWT)

Memory is reconstructive, meaning we piece together fragments of information when recalling an event. This process is vulnerable to suggestion and misleading information.

Classic Study: Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Loftus and Palmer investigated how leading questions (questions that suggest a desired answer) could influence memory in a study about car crashes.

• Participants watched a film clip of a car accident.
• They were then asked to estimate the speed of the cars using different verbs in the critical question: "About how fast were the cars going when they ___ each other?"
• The verbs ranged in intensity (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted).

Findings:

• The verb "smashed" led to the highest speed estimate (40.8 mph).
• The verb "contacted" led to the lowest estimate (31.8 mph).

Conclusion: The wording of a question can activate a specific schema (e.g., the "smashed" schema implies high velocity and severe damage), distorting the participant's memory and leading them to falsely reconstruct the event. This has profound implications for the legal system.

Topic B: Emotion and Cognition - Flashbulb Memory (FBM)

We often recall highly emotional, public, or traumatic events with striking clarity. These are called Flashbulb Memories.

A Flashbulb Memory (FBM) is a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid snapshot of the moment a surprising and emotionally arousing event took place (Brown & Kulik, 1977).

Why do they feel so vivid?

The original theory suggests that the strong emotion (fear, shock) associated with the event causes the activation of the amygdala, leading to the creation of a permanent, detailed record.

The essential question for IB: Are FBMs more reliable than regular memories?

• Initial Studies (Brown & Kulik): Suggested FBMs are reliable and resistant to forgetting because of the high level of emotional arousal.
• Later Studies (e.g., Neisser & Harsch, 1992): Challenged this idea. They studied participants' memories of the Challenger space disaster immediately after the event and again years later. They found that while participants were highly confident in their memories, the actual details were often incorrect or distorted over time.

Conclusion: FBMs are characterized by high confidence and vividness, but their accuracy decays over time, just like normal memories. Emotion enhances the *subjective experience* of the memory, not necessarily its reliability.

Section 5: Research Methods and Ethics in the Cognitive Approach

Cognitive psychologists utilize a variety of methods to study the unobservable mind.

Key Research Methods

1. Experiments: The most common method. They are used to establish cause-and-effect relationships by manipulating an Independent Variable (IV) (e.g., the verb used in a question) and measuring the effect on a Dependent Variable (DV) (e.g., the estimated speed).

• Advantage: High control over variables, allowing researchers to isolate cognitive processes.
• Example: Loftus and Palmer (1974).

2. Case Studies: In-depth investigations of an individual or small group, often focusing on people with specific brain injuries or cognitive disorders.

• Advantage: Provides rich, qualitative detail and insights into rare phenomena that cannot be ethically manipulated in a lab.
• Example: The study of HM (Henry Molaison), whose hippocampus was removed, providing crucial evidence for the distinction between short-term and long-term memory.

Ethical Considerations

Cognitive research, especially on memory and emotion, presents specific ethical challenges:

• Deception: Often necessary in memory research (e.g., not telling participants the real aim of the study, as in Loftus and Palmer) to avoid demand characteristics. Researchers must ensure this is justified and followed by a thorough debriefing.
• Informed Consent/Vulnerability: Essential, especially for case studies involving vulnerable populations (e.g., patients with severe amnesia like HM). Consent often needs to be obtained from caregivers or family members.
• Protection from Harm: Research involving emotion (e.g., studies on Flashbulb Memory related to trauma) must be handled carefully to prevent unnecessary distress or psychological harm.

(HL Only Connection - Technology)

If you are an HL student, remember that technology is a key tool in this approach.
Techniques like fMRI and PET scans allow psychologists to visualize which parts of the brain are active while specific cognitive tasks (like remembering or decision-making) are being performed, strengthening the ability to make scientific inferences.