(2026 Exams)The Cognitive Approach 2

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Theoretical and Computer Models

Internal mental processes can’t be studied directly. The cognitive approach makes use of theoretical and computer models to explain behaviour.

Indirect observation

Cognitive psychologists can’t look inside someone’s head to see thought processes and schemas - these must be studied indirectly.

Making inferences

Learning about mental processes by observing behaviour is called making inferences.
Cognitive psychologists use these inferences to build and test models and theories about how the mind works.

Computer model

The cognitive approach emerged in the mid-20th Century.
At around the same time, computer scientists were developing the earliest computers.
Researchers realised that a computer was a useful model of the mind.

A-S model

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s (1968) model of memory (A-S model) is a good example of a computer model from the early days of cognitive psychology.
It views memory as being based on processing and storing information.

Theoretical models

More broadly, a theoretical model in cognitive psychology presents an idea about how a mental process works.
These models can be tested using experiments, and modified if findings don’t fit with the model.

Evaluation

A weakness of this approach is that computers are different from the human mind in many ways.
They don’t think actively, and are not conscious of their surroundings.

Cognitive Neuroscience

Recently, many cognitive psychologists have started to use insights from neuroscience. This involves linking cognitive processes, such as memory, with the brain processes on which they are based.

Cognitive reasoning

While inferences and computer models are useful in explaining behaviour, they don’t tell us how and why cognitive processes are happening in the brain.

Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the study of the brain.
In recent years, many cognitive psychologists have started to use insights from neuroscience, and have accepted that understanding the brain provides useful information about cognition.

Materialism

Linking neuroscience and cognitive psychology together led to a new field called cognitive neuroscience.
The idea that every cognitive process is directly linked to brain activity is called materialism.
As it is based on materialism, cognitive neuroscience assumes that all cognitive processes are based on the activity of brain areas and their neurons.

FMRI imaging

A key method used in cognitive neuroscience is the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scan.
This technology allows people to do a cognitive task such as a memory or attention test in a brain scanner, so that researchers can see which parts of the brain become active.

How do Computer Analogies Actually Work?

Cognitive psychology suggests that thought processes precede all behaviour. It uses the computer analogy, which suggests that the brain works in much the same way as a computer.

The computer analogy explained

Information is taken in via the five senses, processed by the brain and the output is behaviour or speech.
The Central Processing Unit (CPU) - the brain - encodes information into a suitable format for process or storage.
Information is input through the senses, encoded into memory and then combined with previously stored information to complete a task.

Examples: MSM & WMM

A computer model of memory such as MSM or WMM are good examples.
Information stored on the hard disk is like long-term memory and RAM corresponds to working memory.

Limitations

A limitation of the computer analogy is that as the brain came first, the analogy is really the wrong way round: computers are trying to be like human brains! That is the rationale behind Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Computer analogies have been criticised for machine reductionism, which means that they reduce complex thought processes down to simple mechanical processes.