The cognitive approach is based on the premise that learners, learn by associating past experiences with the present and generating new solutions to the problems.
Advance Organizers are like that: they are simply devices used in the introduction of a topic which enable learners to orient themselves to the topic, so that they can locate where any particular bit of input fits in and how it links with what they already know.
http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/advance_organisers.htm
