What is Cognitive Psychology
The branch of psychology that studies the cerebral processes of the mind, such as thinking, remembering, perceiving, problem solving, and language is cognitive psychology. This consists of mental representations and using theoretical ideas to find connection among brain functions and structures. Cognitive psychology became popular during the regression of behaviorism and the use of technology and neuroscience. Its core focus is on information; how gained, processed, and stored. Where behaviorism fell short, cognitive psychology uplifted. Noam Chomsky is responsible for highlighting some shortcomings of behaviorism. Cognitive psychology has forged forward through important movements, observation, and key contributors.
Cognitive Psychology developed as a response to other approaches in psychology. It was not until the 1950s that psychologists sought new ways to explain the way people think. As it developed, four major steps were visible to imprint cognitive psychology as a major branch of psychology. Many supported behaviorism because it was straightforward and observable, but it lacked the ability to account for mental processes, especially in language. The stepping-stone for cognitive psychology was the crumbling of behaviorism. Many supporters started to believe that it could not do what it promised and mental processes were vital to the study of psychology. Behaviorist believed that people performed certain tasks because they receive a reward such as in language. It “tries to reduce mental things to types of behavioral things” (Moore, 2013, p. 670). Cognitive psychology offered reasons about why behaviors happen outside just receiving rewards for repeating a behavior. Next psychologist developed the idea that the human brain uses representations and processes like a computer. This information processing model suggests that humans get information from their
References: Bergesen, A. J. (2004). Chomsky versus mead*. Sociological Theory, 22(3), 357-370. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/213333679?accountid=458 Moore, J. (2013). TUTORIAL: COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AS A RADICAL BEHAVIORIST VIEWS IT. The Psychological Record,63(3), 667-679. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1442999198?accountid=458 Willingham, D. T. (2007). Cognition: The thinking animal (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.