| What is the main focus of the cognitive area? | - Focuses on the way our brains processes information
- Covers many areas like memory, perception, language, thinking + attention |
| What are the key assumptions of the cognitive area? | - Information processing affects our behaviour
- Our brains operate like a computer – they rely on input, they process information and this leads to an output (behaviour)
- We can make assumptions about what is happening in our brain based on external observations of behaviour |
| Information processing | - The way that information is taken in by the senses, analysed and then responded too |
| Memory | - The capacity to encode, Store and retrieve information
- Without memory , learning could not take place |
| Forgetting | - An experience of not being able to recall information such as an event, fact or a person's name |
| Storage | - The maintenance of information without actively using it for a period of time after initial encoding |
| Retrieval | - The process of locating and extracting stored information so that it can be recalled |
| Strengths of the cognitive area | - Can help us understand how we think + process information
- Can have useful practical application in schools, crime etc.
- Favours scientific method, so research is usually well controlled, high internal validity
- High in internal validity, often uses quantitative data, high in credibility |
| Weakness of the cognitive area | - Scientific approach, some studies lack ecological validity, take place in lab conditions
- Lab experiments, demand characteristics
- Whilst there have been technological advances, still limits to understanding internal mental processes
- Models of information processing aim to generalise to everyone, but are often overly reductionist |
