In one line: We can't see thinking, so psychologists build simplified models of how the mind works — like a map of an invisible process.
A cognitive model is a core tool of the cognitive approach. Because mental processes can't be observed directly, a model turns them into something we can draw, discuss and test.
A model is deliberately simpler than reality — like a Tube map that ignores real distances but shows the connections you need. This links to the concept of measurement: a model makes an invisible process concrete enough to study.
Memory hook: A model is a map of the mind — simplified on purpose. Useful because it leaves things out.
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Key idea: The multi-store model pictures memory as three stores linked by attention and rehearsal — a clear illustration of what a cognitive model does.
Memory as three stores
Sensory memory
A very brief store of everything the senses take in; most fades unless we attend to it.
Short-term memory
A small, short store (a handful of items for seconds). Rehearsal keeps information here.
Long-term memory
A large, lasting store. Rehearsed information is transferred here and can be retrieved later.
Sensory · Short-term · Long-term
Take learning a phone number. It enters sensory memory, you attend to it, hold it in short-term memory by repeating it, and with enough rehearsal it moves to long-term memory. The model gives us a testable picture of steps we can't directly see.
Worked example you could use: Patients with specific memory damage — able to form no new long-term memories yet with a working short-term memory — are often cited as evidence that the stores are separate. You may use this kind of case as an example, in your own words. No need to memorise details.
Go further — higher-level insight: Models are judged by usefulness, not just truth. A model can be 'wrong' in its details yet still valuable if it predicts findings and guides research. Newer models (like working memory) refined the multi-store model rather than simply replacing it.
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Key idea: Models make invisible processes testable, but their simplicity is both their strength and their weakness.
Strengths and limitations
| Strengths and limitations | Strengths | Limitations |
|---|---|---|
| Clarity | Turn invisible processes into testable predictions | Oversimplify — real cognition is messier |
| Research | Generate experiments and can be revised with evidence | May treat the mind too much like a computer |
| Use | Guide education, therapy and AI design | A neat model can feel more 'true' than it is |
So cognitive models are powerful because they make the unseeable studyable and predict findings, but a strong evaluation notes they are simplifications, can lean too hard on the computer metaphor, and must be updated as evidence accumulates.
Watch out: A model is not the mind. Don't treat the boxes and arrows as real physical parts — they are a useful description, not a photograph of the brain.