THEORY
- Revolves around the notion that if we want to know what makes people tick then we need to understand the internal processes of their mind.
- Cognition literally means "knowing".
- Psychologists from this approach study cognition which is the mental act by which knowledge is aquired.
- Cognitive psychologists use experimental methods and case studies to investigate internal mental processes.
- Internal mental processes can't be directly observed so they are studied by making inferences about what is going on in peoples minds on the basis of their behaviour.
Assumptions:
- The mind works in a similar was to a computer: Inputting, processing, storing, and retrieving data.
- Focusses on the way humans process information, looking at how we treat information that comes in to the person and how this treatment leads to the responses.
- Cognitive processes actively organise and manipulate the information we receive.
- Interested in the variables that mediate between stimulus/input and response/output.