BackCognitive Psychology: Foundations, Key Figures, and Research Questions
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Topic: Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Psychology (1960's+)
Cognitive psychology is a field of psychology that focuses on mental processes, including information processing, memory, perception, language, and problem solving. It emerged as a response to limitations in behaviorist approaches, emphasizing the importance of internal mental states.
Mental processes include attention, perception, memory, language, and reasoning.
Applications: Understanding how people learn, remember, and solve problems.
Historical Context
The popularity of computer science in the 1950s and 1960s influenced the development of cognitive psychology. Computers process information in specific ways, leading psychologists to conceptualize the mind as an information processor.
This shift is known as the Cognitive Revolution.
Psychologists began to think about the mind as a system that encodes, stores, and retrieves information.
Example: Memory is studied as a process of encoding, storage, and retrieval, similar to computer operations.
Main Research Questions
Cognitive psychologists investigate questions such as:
How do humans perceive, think, remember, and solve problems?
How does childhood behavior change as children mature?
How do cultures impact the expression of emotions?
What strategies do people use when problem solving?
How do people develop stereotypes?
Important Founders
Name | Contribution | Key Work |
|---|---|---|
Ulric Neisser (1928–2012) | Coined the term "cognitive psychology" and published the first textbook in the field. | Cognitive Psychology (1967) |
George A. Miller (1920–2012) | Conducted influential research on short-term memory capacity. | "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two" (1956) |
Noam Chomsky (1928– ) | Considered the founder of modern linguistics; challenged behaviorist views of language acquisition. | Critique of Skinner's Verbal Behavior (1959) |
Example Research Questions in Cognitive Psychology
How does prosocial behavior change from childhood to adolescence?
How does culture impact the expression of emotions?
What strategies do people use when problem solving?
How do people develop stereotypes?
Critical Thinking: Behaviorism vs. Cognitive Psychology
If a cognitive psychologist were to critique a behaviorist, they might argue:
Behaviorism is limited because it focuses only on observable behavior, ignoring internal mental processes.
By focusing solely on behavior, we fail to consider the social and cultural environment and the underlying cognitive mechanisms.
It is important to consider both cognitive development and stability when examining psychological phenomena.
Additional info: For more details, see sections on Cognition (Thinking, Intelligence, and Language).
