Cognitive+SAQ2+(Reductionism)

  a.  __Outline what is meant by the reductionist approach.__ [2 marks] 

__What is meant by the reductionist approach?__ Reductionism is the point of view that human behavior can successfully be resolved into its biological components, components that may then in turn be described as chemical and electrical events. Reductionism is not itself a theory, since it does not present testable hypotheses that tend either to support or to disprove it. What is often claimed by reductionist is that only one form of explanation is necessary to explain behavior.

The reductionist approach in a cognitive perspective attempts to describe and understand human behaviour in terms of simple components or units. As the cognitive psychology is concerned with how people acquire, store, transform, use and communicate information, various theories and studies have been accepted and constructed to support this perspective in psychology.  b. __Explain how one theory or empirical study from the cognitive perspective demonstrates a reductionist approach.__ [6 marks]


One that demonstrates a reductionist approach in the cognitive perspective is memory models, which are utilised to simplify the studying of the mind. An example of a memory model that reduces the memory processing of the mind would be the levels of processing (Craik and Lockhart, 1972). The levels of processing effect describe memory recall of stimuli as a function of the depth of mental processing. The process of memory is broken down into three examples of levels at which verbal information could be processed. Structural level, where one is merely paying attention to how the word looks like roughly, phonetic level, which is the processing of sound of words and lastly semantic level which is the consideration of the meaning of words. Craik and Lockhart believe that deep processing (e.g. semantic processing) results in a more durable memory trace, whereas shallow processing (e.g. processing based on phonetic and orthographic components) leads to a fragile memory trace that is susceptible to rapid decay.

The working memory (also call Short-Term Memory) is one of the theories from the cognitive perspective that demonstrate a reductionist approach. The Working Memory refers to the structures and process used for temporarily storing and manipulating information. [|Baddeley] and Hitch (1974) proposed a Model of Working Memory that attempts to describe a more accurate model of short-term memory. This memory model is an alternative to the short-term memory store that was done by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) multi-store model. Multi-store model was expanded providing a different perspective on working memory system.

__Explain how one theory or empirical study from the cognitive__ __perceptive__ __demonstrates a reductionist approach__ The mind-brain relationship is to be explained in terms of evolutionary forces, some of which tug in the direction of a reductionistic mind-brain relationship, and some of which which tug in the opposite direction. This theory of forces makes possible an anti-reductionist account of the cognitive mind-brain relationship which avoids psychophysical anomalism. This theory thus also responds to the complaint which arguably lies behind the Churchlands' strongest criticisms of anti-reductionism — namely the complaint that anti-reductionists fail to supply principled explanations for the character of the mind-brain relationship.

__Second Answer: (similar) __Each stages in the multi-store model would have a different duration and capacity and mode of encoding (different way info stored ie. picture,sound) Each individual would have a different way to remember things accordingly to their ability and which is more efficient for each individual. Sensory memory: information can be stored very briefly Short term memory (STM): information coming in can be stored in this only for a limited amount of time and not much information can be kept. Long term memory (LTM): information transferred from the short-term memory through rehearsal, more info can be kept for a longer period //__These information found from a “A” level psychology resources: __// Sensory Memory Coding = Modality Specific (can be visual, acoustic, tactile, etc. depending on the sense being used) Capacity = Difficult to test, thought to be quite large Duration = 1-2 seconds  Short Term Memory <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Coding = Thought to be acoustic (due to studies such as Conrad) but may depend on task <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Capacity = 7 ± 2 items or chunks <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Duration = Between 15 and 30 seconds <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Long Term Memory <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Coding = Semantic <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Capacity = Very large <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Duration = A very long time, but difficult to test

//<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Note: see website to see the animation of the process of the 'multi-store model' ( //[|//http://alevelpsychology.co.uk/cognitive-psychology/memory/the-multistore-model-of-memory-atkinson-and-shiffrin.html//]//<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">) //<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">

<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: TH; mso-no-proof: yes;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">