Define General Psychology

IB Psychology Notes

June 15, 2016 – 05:31 am

State what you are doing in the essay

This essay will give a brief summary of the principles that define the cognitive level of analysis.

Define the cognitive level of analysis

The cognitive level of analysis (CLA) is based on how mental processes such as perception, attention, language, memory and thinking in the brain processes information.

It concerns the way we take in information from the outside world, how we make sense of that information and what use we make of it.

State the principles of the CLA

There are three underlying principles that define the CLA:

Human beings are information processors and that mental representations guide behaviour
Mental processes can and should be studied scientifically by developing theories and by using a variety of research methods
Social and cultural factors affect cognitive processes

Purpose of the principles

These principles are the main ideas that have driven focused research on specific areas of behaviour and cognition.

They also allow us to understand how behaviour can be influenced by cognitive processes

Define cognition

Refers to a process that is based on one's mental representations of the world, such as images, words and concepts

People likewise have different experiences and therefore each individual will have different mental representations of the world.

Body

State principle 1

Cognitive psychologists believe that mental processes and stored representations of the world determine behaviour and are central to human experience.

Describe the principle

Psychologists see the mind as a complex machine – where they believe that it is useful to model mental processes using an information-processing approach whereby:

Information is examined from the outside world is received and encoded

Storage and representation of this information to ourselves

Ways in which this information is manipulated and used by the individual

And how we output information back into the world to be received by others.

Many cognitive psychologists have used the computer analogy, where they have conceived the human mind as being similar to a computer, in that both can be seen as information processors, to attempt to understand how the brain manages these mental processes (information processing).

The brain in this instance is seen as the hardware and the mind, thoughts and mental representations/images as the software.

Explain Computer Analogy

Attempted to understand what occurs between input and output.

They have addressed how the mind selects and codes incoming information and represents knowledge to itself while processing it and combining it with previously stored information (organisation), and then how inferences are made based upon this information and therefore how these cognitions affect behaviour.

(OR) Both people and computers store information and retrieve it when applicable to current tasks.

People, like computers acquire information from the environment (input).

Both transform information, produce new information and then both return the information back to the environment in the form of behaviour (output).

Source: ibguides.com