Evaluation of the Cognitive approach

Cognitive psychologists have always employed controlled rigorous methods of study, for example, lab studies, in order to infer cognitive processes at work.

This has enabled the two fields of biology and cognitive psychology to come together and form cognitive neuroscience.

This means that the study of the mind has established a credible, scientific basis.

The cognitive approach is based on soft determinism, recognising that our cognitive system can only operate within certain limits, but that we are also free to think before responding to a stimulus.

This is in contrast to the behaviourist approach which suggests that we are passive 'slaves' to the environment and that there is a lack of free choice in our behaviour.

The cognitive approach takes a more reasonable and flexible middle-ground position in the free-will determinsim debate and is more in line with our sibjective sense of free-will.

Although there are some similarities between the operations of the human mind and a computer (both having inputs and outputs, central processors and storage systems), the computer analogy has been critisied.

For instance human emotion and motivation has been shown to influence the accuracy of recall, e.g. in eyewitness accounts.

These factors are not considered within the computer analogy and therefore cognitive psychology is seen to oversimplify human cognitive processing and ignores important aspects that influence performance.

Cognitive psychologists are only able to inter mental processes from behaviours that they observe, so the approach sometimes suffers from being too abstract and theoretical.

Also, research is often carried out using artifical stimuli, such as the recall of word lists in studies of memory which may not fully represent everyday experiences.

Therefore, research into cognitive processes may lack external validity.