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Cognitive approach - Coggle Diagram
Cognitive approach
Schemas
Thoughts and memories are not stored as separate pieces of information, but are linked together into structures called 'schemas' (or 'schemata'). The influence our thinking and behaviour.
A schema is a cognitive structure where thoughts and memories are linked together. It influences future thinking.
Schemas and learning
Schemas derive from learning throughout life. Because of this, schemas are influenced by the culture in which we grow up.
A young child tends to have very simple schemas about objects, situations and animals.
Assimilation
According to researcher Jean Piaget, new information is added to schemas through a process called assimilation. But sometimes - due to inconsistent information - a new schema forms though a process called accommodation.
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Stereotypes
A stereotype is an example of a schema. It is an oversimplified set of ideas about a group of people, that can affect later thinking and behaviour.
Types of schemas
Role schema: knowledge about how to act in a certain role e.g. expectations about how a waiter should act.
Event schema: also known as scripts. Our knowledge and expectations about what should happen in certain scenarios e.g. going to the movies.
Self-schema: all about us, what we are now, what we were in the past and what we hope too be in the future. Our sense of self.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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