The cognitive approach uses experimental research methods to study internal mental processes such as attention, perception, memory and decision-making. Cognitive psychologists assume that the mind actively processes information from our senses (touch, taste etc.) and that between stimulus and response is a series of complex mental processes, which can be studied scientifically. They also assume that humans can be viewed as data processing systems and that the workings of a computer and the human mind are alike – they encode and store information, they have outputs, etc.