Cognitive Approach Evaluation

Scientific and Objective Methods - The cognitive approach has always employed highly controlled and rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes at work. This has involved the use of lab experiments to produce reliable, objective data. In addition, the emergence of cognitive neuroscience has enabled the two fields of biology and cognitive psychology to come together. This means that the study of the mind has established a credible scientific basis

Machine Reductionism - Although there are similarities between the human mind and the operations of a computer (inputs and outputs, storage systems, the use of a central processor), the computer analogy has been criticised by many. Such machine reductionism ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system, and how this may affect our ability to process information.

Application to Everyday Life - Cognitive psychologists are only able to infer mental processes from the behaviour they observe in their research. As a consequence, cognitive psychology occasionally suffers from being too abstract and theoretical in nature. Experimental studies of mental processes are often carried out using artificial stimuli that may not represent everyday memory experience.

Real Life Application - The cognitive approach is probably the dominant approach in psychology today and has been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts.

Less Determinist than Other Approaches - The cognitive approach is founded on soft determinism – it recognises that our cognitive system can only operate within the limits of what we know, but that we are free to think before responding to a stimulus. This is a more reasonable ‘interactionist’ (middle-ground) position than the hard determinism suggested by some other approaches.