A method and device for identifying the type of occupancy of a supporting surface, particularly of a motor vehicle seat (2), with the aid of force sensor-assisted signals. The sensor signals s.sub.i, which are recorded at predetermined instants t.sub.i, or quantities derived therefrom, are continuously stored in a memory (4) in such a manner that, the sensor signals from the recent past, or the quantities derived therefrom are available for analysis at any time, and that the type of occupancy is derived from these stored values using at least two independent calculation methods or using a neural network.