Their research had a cognitive approach which studied how writers thought about and planned their writing process.

The phenomenal success of the cognitive approach can be seen by its current dominance as the core model in contemporary psychology (usurping behaviorism in the late 1950s).

The theory by itself was groundbreaking in that it was among the first to go against the psychometric approach to intelligence and take a more cognitive approach.

A cognitive approach accepts that natural categories are graded (they tend to be fuzzy at their boundaries) and inconsistent in the status of their constituent members.

As such, it ignores the importance of physiological states and bodily sensations to emotional life, and might be an overly cognitive approach and a way to control emotions.