The Cognitive Approach

The cognitive approach emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as a reaction against behaviourism's refusal to study internal mental processes. Often called the "cognitive revolution", this approach argues that to understand behaviour, we must study the mental processes that underlie it — perception, attention, memory, language, and thinking.

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Key Assumptions

1. Internal mental processes can and should be studied scientifically, even though they cannot be directly observed.
2. The mind works like an information processor, similar to a computer — receiving input, processing it, and producing output.
3. Mental processes can be studied indirectly through inference — by measuring behaviour and drawing conclusions about underlying cognitive processes.
4. Schemas (mental frameworks) influence how we perceive and interpret the world.

Key Definition: Cognitive approach — the approach that focuses on how internal mental processes (such as perception, memory, thinking, and language) affect behaviour. It uses the computer analogy and studies mental processes through inference.

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The Computer Analogy

The cognitive approach uses the computer analogy to describe how the mind processes information: