Cognitive Psychology




Cognitive Approach

The term cognitive psychology came into use with the publication of the book Cognitive Psychology by Ulric Neisser in 1967. Cognitive Psychology revolves around the notion that if we want to know what makes people tick then the way to do it is to figure out what processes are actually going on in their minds.

Cognition literally means “knowing”. In other words, psychologists from this approach study cognition which is ‘the mental act or process by which knowledge is acquired.’

They focus on the way humans process information, looking at how we treat information that comes in to the person (what behaviourists would call stimuli) and how this treatment leads to responses. In other words, they are interested in the variables that mediate between stimulus/input and response/output. The main areas of study in cognitive psychology are: perception, attention, memory and language.

The cognitive approach applies a nomothetic approach to discover human cognitive processes, but have also adopted idiographic techniques through using case studies (e.g. KF, HM).

Typically cognitive psychologists use the laboratory experiment to study behaviour. This is because the cognitive approach is a scientific one. For example, participants will take part in memory tests in strictly controlled conditions. However, the widely used lab experiment can be criticised for lacking ecological validity (a major criticism of cognitive psychology).

Cognitive psychology became of great importance in the mid-1950s. Several factors were important in this: -

o Dissatisfaction with the behaviourist approach in its simple emphasis on external behaviour rather than internal processes

o The development of better experimental methods

o The start of the use of computers allowed psychologists to try to understand the complexities of human cognition by comparing it with something simpler and better understood i.e. an artificial system such as a computer.

The cognitive approach began to revolutionise psychology in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, to become the dominant approach (i.e. perspective) in psychology by the late 1970s. Interest in mental processes had been gradually restored through the work of Piaget and Tolman. Other factors were important in the early development of the cognitive approach. For example, dissatisfaction with the behaviourist approach in its simple emphasis on behaviour rather than internal processes and the development of better experimental methods. But it was the arrival of the computer that gave cognitive psychology the terminology and metaphor it needed to investigate the human mind. The start of the use of computers allowed psychologists to try to understand the complexities of human cognition by comparing it with something simpler and better understood i.e. an artificial system such as a computer.

The History of Cognitive Psychology

* Norbert Wiener (1948) published Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, introducing terms such as input and output.

* Tolman (1948) work on cognitive maps – training rats in mazes, showed that animals had internal representation of behaviour.

* Birth of Cognitive Psychology often dated back to George Miller’s (1956) “The Magical Number 7 Plus or Minus 2.”

* Newell and Simon’s development of the General Problem Solver.

* In 1960, Miller founded the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard with famous cognitivist developmentalist, Jerome Bruner.

* Ulric Neisser (1967) publishes "Cognitive Psychology", which marks the officical begining of the cognitive approach.

* Process models of memory Atkinson & Shiffrin’s (1969) Multi Store Model.

* Cognitive approach highly influential in all areas of psychology (e.g. biological, social, behaviourism, development etc).

Cognitive Psychology Summary

Key Concepts

Methodology

Basic Assumptions

Areas of Application
  • Cognitive psychology is a pure science, based mainly on laboratory experiments.
  • Behaviour can be largely explained in terms of how the mind operates, i.e. the information processing approach.
  • The mind works in a way similar to a computer: inputting, storing and retrieving data.
  • Mediational processes occur between stimulus and response.

Strengths

Weaknesses
  • Scientific
  • Highly applicable (e.g. therapy, EWT)
  • Combines easily with approaches: Behaviourism + Cog = Social Learning Biology + Cog = Evolutionary Psy
  • Many empirical studies to support theories
  • Ignores biology (e.g. testosterone)
  • Experiments - low ecological validity
  • Humanism - rejects scientific method
  • Behaviourism - can’t objectively study unobservable behaviour
  • Introspection is subjective
  • Machine reductionism

Cognitive Approach Evaluation

B.F. Skinner criticises the cognitive approach as he believes that only external stimulus - response behaviour should be studied as this can be scientifically measured. Therefore, mediation processes (between stimulus and response) do not exist as they cannot be seen and measured. Skinner continues to find problems with cognitive research methods, namely introspection (as used by Wundt) due to its subjective and unscientific nature.

Carl Rogers believes that the use of laboratory experiments by cognitive psychology have low ecological validity and create an artificial enviroment due to the control over variables.

Darwin – The cognitive approaches ignores biological influences on behaviour (e.g. hormones).

The Information Processing paradigm of cognitive psychology views that minds in terms of a computer when processing information. However, their are important difference between humans and computers. The mind does not process information like a computer as computers don’t have emotions or get tired like humans.

Behaviourism assumes that people are born a blank slate (tabula rasa) and are not born with cognitive functions like schemas, memory or perception.

The Cognitive approach does not recognise physical (re: biological psychology) and environmental (re: behaviorism) factors in determining behaviour.


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