This paper traces the historical development of cognitive psychology as a discipline focused on human information processing, including perception, memory, attention, language, and thinking. It introduces the foundational concept of cognition and cognitive science as an interdisciplinary field. The paper then examines the key antecedents that contributed to the emergence of cognitive psychology: introspectionism (particularly the work of Wundt and Kulpe), Gestalt psychology, and behaviorism. Together, these movements shaped the shift from the study of external behavior toward the examination of internal mental processes that defines modern cognitive psychology.
Cognitive psychology has emerged as a discipline in the field of psychology that examines the way people process information. This field achieves its goal by studying how humans respond to information received through stimuli and how their treatment of that information contributes to certain responses. Professionals in this field generally study internal processes such as perception, language, attention, thinking, and memory. Cognitive psychology is based on the concept that understanding the internal processes of the mind is crucial to understanding a person's responses and actions. As a result, this discipline fundamentally emphasizes the individual and his or her natural environment.
One of the foundational concepts in cognitive psychology is cognition, whose literal meaning is described as knowing. Cognition refers to mental processes such as attention, memory, thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, and language comprehension. While the term is also used in other branches of psychology — such as social psychology — it normally refers to the information-processing perspective of psychological functions. In cognitive psychology, professionals study cognition as the mental process through which individuals acquire knowledge.
Cognition and cognitive psychology also encompass an interdisciplinary perspective known as cognitive science. Cognitive science can be described as an interdisciplinary approach to the mind that draws on psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, philosophy, linguistics, and anthropology.
The evolution of cognitive psychology as a discipline cannot be attributed to any single defining moment, as there are several antecedents associated with its development. However, the use of the term cognitive psychology is normally traced to the publication of a book by Ulric Neisser in 1967, titled Cognitive Psychology (McLeod, 2007). The cognitive approach began transforming the field of psychology between the 1950s and 1960s, eventually becoming the prevailing approach by the end of the 1970s. Major works that contributed to increased interest in examining mental processes include those of Piaget and Tolman.
This discipline became a significant field in the mid-1950s for a variety of reasons, including dissatisfaction with the behaviorist approach to psychology. That dissatisfaction stemmed from behaviorism's emphasis on external behavior rather than internal processes. Other contributing factors include the development of improved experimental methods and the comparison of information processing between humans and computers. The invention of computers provided cognitive psychology with the terminology and metaphors needed to study the human mind — computers served as artificial systems that allowed cognitive psychologists to examine the complexities of human internal processes by analogy with synthetic systems.
As noted above, the emergence of cognitive psychology was not prompted by a single event but was stimulated by several antecedents, including introspectionism, Gestalt psychology, and behaviorism.
Contemporary experimental psychology can be traced to the work of several figures — including Fechner, Donders, Helmholtz, and Mach — in the mid-19th century. The first dedicated psychology laboratory was established by Wundt in 1879 in Leipzig, where he built on the efforts of these pioneers. Wundt regarded consciousness as an appropriate subject matter for psychology, reasoning that scientists examine physical objects through observations of instrument readings in much the same way that psychologists could observe conscious experience.
"Covers introspectionism and Wundt's experimental psychology"
"Examines reactions against introspectionism by Gestalt thinkers"
"Describes how behaviorism shaped and preceded cognitive psychology"
McLeod, S. (2007). Cognitive Psychology. Retrieved March 11, 2012, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive.html
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