the computer analogy

• cognitive psychologists often compare the human mind with a computer.
• a comparison could be made with a computer in terms of how we take in information via our senses (input), change or store the information (process) and then output in the form of behaviour or retrieval.
• our mind can be seen as the hardware of the computer, whilst our cognitive processes such as perception, attention and memory can be viewed as the software.
• an example of this approach can be seen in Atkinson's and Shriffin's multistore model of memory. This model suggests that information is input via our sensory memory The data can then be retrieved or processed further in order to move it to the long-term memory.