The cognitive approach deals with the mental processes involved with knowing and understanding. The cognitive approach is said to deal with “…how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems.” as said in our Psychology book.
With the cognitive approach, it shuts out the idea of the behavioral approach. The cognitive mind is in control of behavior through memories, images, and thinking. Cognitive thinking also involves sensation and perception. Even us thinking about thinking is cognition.
They compare cognition to the software in a computer. They came up with the cognitive approach for understanding mental processes that cannot be physically observed but are in the mind.
The strength of this approach is that it is easily compared with most of the other approaches to make something else.