Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive
psychology can be defined as the field of psychology that analyses and studies
mental processes. These processes include the functioning behind how people
think, learn, memorize and observe the world around them. Cognitive psychology
has as some of its primary focuses the way people acquire process and store the
information they receive on a daily basis. Some of the practical applications
for this branch of psychology include helping patients improve their memory,
facilitating the learning process or improving someone’s decision making
skills. Before the upcoming of cognitive psychology, in the 50s, behaviorism
was the predominant school of thought. However, between 1950 and 1970, the
primary focus of psychology began to change to issues related to attention,
problem-solving and memory. All the research and new information that surfaced
during this period, contributed for it to be referred as the “cognitive
revolution” (Cherry, 2012). Some of the major topics studied by Cognitive
Psychology are perception, attention, language, memory, problem-solving, and
intelligence. Some of the most important contributors in the history of
Cognitive Psychology are Gustav Fechner, Wilhelm Wundt, Edward B. Titchener and
James William (Anderson, 2005).
Cognitive psychology was highly influenced by many
different thinkers and periods. For instance, it is possible to travel back to
ancient Greece, where Greek philosophers like Plato started building the
foundations for what wo9uld eventually become Cognitive Psychology. Plato had
the understanding that we see objects not necessarily as their concrete form,
but in the abstract ideas that they represent. He also started that true
knowledge could only be found by logically analyzing events. Similarly,
Aristotle had comparable beliefs, like the idea that experience and observation
were the only ways to find true knowledge.
Moving past the Greek philosophers and into more “modern”
thinkers, one can consider the thoughts of Rene Descartes as another milestone
in the history of Cognitive Psychology, since his principles of dualism and his
ideas about rationalist were crucial in the development of this branch of
psychology as a practice. Descartes, with his nativist ideas, believed that
children were born with some innate knowledge. However, John Locke soon refused
this principle, with his famous concepts of the “tabula rasa”, or blank slate.
Locke believed that children were born without any knowledge, and they would
learn everything from the environment (Cherry, 2013).
There is some argument regarding who the real “father” of
cognitive psychology is, but it is impossible to not recognize Wilhelm Wundt as
a crucial figure, as he was one of the first psychologists to study was is
today considered cognitive psychology. Thanks to him and his studies on
introspection, cognitive psychologies gained some popularity in Europe and
acquire more followers. Thinkers like Jean Piaget, Frederick Barlett and
Alexander Luria started to not only study, but also to make advances in the new
field of cognitive psychology. At this time, behaviorism was still the most
popular school of thought in the United States, but because of the Second World
War, many psychologists in Europe migrated to America, which contributed to the
popularity of new fields of psychology (Anderson, 2005).
Towards the end of the Second World War, cognitive
psychology finally debuted as an official field of psychology, as its principles
were used as a way to help soldiers learn new techniques and equipment uses. At
this time, another milestone in cognitive psychology occurred with the
publication of George A. Miller’s paper, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or
Minus 2”. Miller changed forever the world of psychology by suggesting and
proving that although the human mind can’t be seen in a microscope, can still
be studied, analyzed, and tested in a laboratory. One of his revolutionary
ideas was the concept that when asked to recall a list of random items, people
often remember more or less seven, proving that our short term memory can store
an average of seven items. He also showed that human beings can retain a little
information about a lot of things, as opposed to a lot of information about not
so many things. His important conclusion after this line of thought was that
the human brain was capable of processing a lot of information, other than
obeying rules, which made it possible to be studied (Vitello, 2012).
Cognitive psychology remains, to this day, as an
important field of psychology. Studying the human mind and the way it works is
not an easy task, and because of that behavioral observation is a crucial
element in the quest to understand the mind. Without behavioral observation,
scientists and psychologists are left with only experimental studies, but the
human mind can be a subjective matter. Cognitive psychology is a very
inferential matter, and by observing the human behavior, psychologists are able
to make conclusions and learning processes and other abstract mechanisms in the
brain.
References
Anderson,
J.R. 2005. "Cognitive psychology and its implications." Rev. Ed.
Retrieved from
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9P4p6eAULMoC&oi=fnd&pg=PP15&dq=%22Anderson%22+%22Cognitive+psy
chology+and+its+implications:+John+R.+Anderson%22+&ots=S7EdQGdAvm&sig=fB1BaN1lpmGf4hXT8bRZ_MkALKY#v=onepage&q=%22Anderson%22%20%22Cognitive%20psychology%20and%20its%20implications%3A%20John%20R.%20Anderson%22&f=false
Cherry,
K. (2013). What is Cognitive Psychology? . Retrieved
from http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/f/cogpsych.htm?p=1
Vitello,
P. (2012). George A. Miller, a pioneer in cognitive psychology,
is dead at 92. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/us/george-a-miller-cognitive-psychology-pioneer-dies-at-92.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
