Information processing approach refers to an approach to cognition that uses a computer metaphor in its explanations. Information processing equates cognition with the acquisition, storage, and manipulation of information, for example, what we see, hear, read about, think about through a system consisting of various storage places and systems of exchange.

Information-processing approach refers to the study of how people take in stimuli from their environment and transform them into memories; the approach is based on a computer metaphor.