The cognitive approach focuses on internal, mental activity as a means of explaining behaviour. The approach assumes that behaviour can be explained and understood by comparing the brain to a computer, and that experimental research is desirable. The advent of computers offered cognitive psychology a new vocabulary and set of concepts; although not all Cognitive explanations are based in information processing.
The word (and
concept) “schema” is by now used throughout psychology. The “schema” is a
useful concept as it can help in an explanation of many behaviours such as how
we remember facts or actions, how a child learns, the influence of expectations
on behaviour and how we understand human behaviour through social constructions
(by studying the social interactions of people), and expresses our tendency for
cognitive economy. The cognitive approach reintroduced mental states (e.g.
memory, perception, attention, processes), into psychological explanations although
other internal states (e.g., emotion) continued to be excluded, until recently.
The cognitive approach has a large number of useful applications (e.g. in the
design of machines where the operator has to stay alert and perform complex
operations [e.g. airline pilots], so that we are able to use such machines
safely and efficiently) and has been used in many psychological theories (in
areas such as Developmental psychology, Memory, Attention, Perception, but it
is largely mechanistic, reductionist, and deterministic. The reliance on data
from laboratory experiments means that some research lacks ecological validity.
Michael W.Eysenck & Cara Flanagan, 2001, Psychology for A2 level, Psychology Press, ISBN 1-84169-251-4 (Highly recommended text for broad overview of psychology, written in an easy to understand style)