[Objective] To analyze the cognition and behavior of different household in order to provide support for the government policy making and guide farmers to strengthen the supervision and protection of cultivated land.[Methods] This research took Zhoukou City in He'nan Province as an example, to investigate household's cognition and behavior of cultivated land protection by stratified random sampling and participatory rural appraisal(PRA) assessment method. The factors that influence farmer's cognition and behavior were studied by using binary Logistic regression models.[Results] (1) With the improvement of education, the cognition of household on the importance of farmland, time investment preferences, confidence in the prospects for the cultivated land protection, and the agricultural pollution prevention showed as:Ⅰ < Ⅱ < Ⅲ < Ⅳ. In contrast, the willingness to participate after compensation, regularly using organic fertilizer or soil testing fertilizer, and to prevent other people from destroying the arable land showed as:Ⅰ > Ⅱ > Ⅲ > Ⅳ. (2) Some of the factors that influence the behavior of farmers were similar in all types of household, while the others were different. The same factors included education degree, investment preference, willingness to accept compensate. The factors that influence the household with high average age and less labors included age, the number of farmers, and the way of compensation. The factors that influence household specialized in agriculture included family gross income, cultivate area and arable land fragmentation. The factors that influence natural assets household(work short in farming, and high non-farm income) included non-farm income, the economic benefits of grain production. The factors that influence assets type household(living in town and invested less in farming) included cultivated land economic location, the current food prices and policy compensation mode.[Conclusion] As the direct participants of cultivated land protection, household's cognition and behavior determines the effectiveness of farmland protection to a large extent.