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{{ExpPsy}}
  
{{ExpPsy}}
   
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'''Cognitive psychology''' is the school of psychology that examines internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, and language. It had its foundations in the [[Gestalt psychology]] of [[Max Wertheimer]], [[Wolfgang Köhler]], and [[Kurt Koffka]], and in the work of [[Jean Piaget]], who studied intellectual development in children. Cognitive psychologists are interested in how people understand, diagnose, and solve problems, concerning themselves with the mental processes which mediate between stimulus and response. Cognitive theory contends that solutions to problems take the form of [[algorithm]]s—rules that are not necessarily understood but promise a solution, or [[heuristics]]—rules that are understood but that do not always guarantee solutions. In other instances, solutions may be found through insight, a sudden awareness of relationships.
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'''Cognitive psychology''' is the [[psychology|psychological]] [[science]] that studies [[cognition]] in both [[Animal cognition|animals]] and [[Human cognition|man]], .
 
   
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==History==
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Cognition is the [[mental process]]es involved in acquiring and processing information which underlies [[behavior]]: this includes [[thinking]], [[reasoning]], [[decision making]], and to some extent [[motivation]] and [[emotion]].
 
  ⚫
[[Ulric Neisser]] coined the term 'cognitive psychology' in his book published in 1967, wherein Neisser provides a definition of cognitive psychology, emphasising that it is a ''point of view'' which postulates the mind as having a certain conceptual structure. Neisser's point of view endows the discipline a scope which expands beyond high-level concepts such as "reasoning", often espoused in other works as a definition of cognitive psychology. Neisser's definition of ''cognition'' illustrates this well:
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Cognitive psychology covers a broad range of research domains, examining questions about the workings of [[memory]], [[attention]], [[perception]], [[knowledge representation]], [[reasoning]], [[creativity]] and [[problem solving]].
 
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The term '''Cognitive psychology''' came into use with the publication of the book ''Cognitive Psychology'' by [[Ulric Neisser]] in [[1967]], wherein Neisser provides a broad definition of cognitive psychology, emphasising that it is a ''point of view'' which postulates the mind as having a certain conceptual structure. Neisser's point of view endows the discipline a scope which expands beyond high-level concepts such as "reasoning", often espoused in other works in as a definition of cognitive psychology. Neisser's definition of ''cognition'' illustrates this well:
  
   
 
<blockquote>...the term "cognition" refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is concerned with these processes even when they operate in the absence of relevant stimulation, as in images and hallucinations... Given such a sweeping definition, it is apparent that cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do; that every psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon. But although cognitive psychology is concerned with all human activity rather than some fraction of it, the concern is from a particular point of view. Other viewpoints are equally legitimate and necessary. Dynamic psychology, which begins with motives rather than with sensory input, is a case in point. Instead of asking how a man's actions and experiences result from what he saw, remembered, or believed, the dynamic psychologist asks how they follow from the subject's goals, needs, or instincts.
  
<blockquote>...the term "cognition" refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is concerned with these processes even when they operate in the absence of relevant stimulation, as in images and hallucinations... Given such a sweeping definition, it is apparent that cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do; that every psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon. But although cognitive psychology is concerned with all human activity rather than some fraction of it, the concern is from a particular point of view. Other viewpoints are equally legitimate and necessary. Dynamic psychology, which begins with motives rather than with sensory input, is a case in point. Instead of asking how a man's actions and experiences result from what he saw, remembered, or believed, the dynamic psychologist asks how they follow from the subject's goals, needs, or instincts.
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Cognitive psychology is radically different from previous psychological approaches in two key ways.
  
Cognitive psychology is radically different from previous psychological approaches in two key ways.
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* It accepts the use of the [[scientific method]], and generally rejects [[introspection]] as a valid method of investigation, unlike [[phenomenology|phenomenological]] methods such as [[Freud|Freudian]] psychology.
 +
* It accepts the use of the [[scientific method]], and generally rejects [[introspection]] as a valid method of investigation, unlike [[phenomenology|phenomenological]] methods such as [[Freud]]ian psychology.
−
* It explicitly acknowledges the existence of internal mental states (such as [[belief]]s, [[desire]]s and [[motivation]]s) unlike [[behaviourism|behaviourist]] psychology.
 +
* It explicitly acknowledges the existence of internal mental states (such as [[belief]], [[Preference|desire]] and [[motivation]]) unlike [[behaviorism|behaviorist]] psychology.
   
 
The school of thought arising from this approach is known as [[cognitivism (psychology)|cognitivism]].
  
The school of thought arising from this approach is known as [[cognitivism (psychology)|cognitivism]].
   
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Cognitive psychology is one of the more recent additions to psychological research, having only developed as a separate area within the discipline since the late 1950s and early 1960s (though there are examples of cognitive thinking from earlier researchers). The cognitive approach was brought to prominence by [[Donald Broadbent]]'s book ''Perception and Communication'' in [[1958]]. Since that time, the dominant [[paradigm]] in the area has been the [[information processing]] model of cognition that Broadbent put forward. This is a way of thinking and reasoning about mental processes, envisaging them like software running on the computer that is the brain. Theories commonly refer to forms of input, representation, computation or processing, and outputs.
 +
Cognitive psychology is one of the more recent additions to psychological research, having only developed as a separate area within the discipline since the late [[1950s]] and early [[1960s]] (though there are examples of cognitive thinking from earlier researchers). The cognitive approach was brought to prominence by [[Donald Broadbent]]'s book ''Perception and Communication'' in [[1958]]. Since that time, the dominant [[paradigm]] in the area has been the [[information processing]] model of cognition that Broadbent put forward. This is a way of thinking and reasoning about mental processes, envisaging them as software running on the computer that is the brain. Theories refer to forms of input, representation, computation or processing, and outputs. Applied to language as the primary mental knowledge representation system, cognitive psychology has exploited tree and network mental models. Its singular contribution to AI and psychology in general is the notion of a [[semantic network]]. One of the first cognitive psychologists, [[George A. Miller|George Miller]] is well-known for dedicating his career to the development of [[WordNet]], a semantic network for the English language. Development began in 1985 and is now the foundation for many machine ontologies.
   
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This way of conceiving mental processes has pervaded psychology more generally over the past few decades, and it is not uncommon to find cognitive theories within [[social psychology]], [[personality]], [[abnormal psychology]], [[developmental psychology]]; the application of cognitive theories in [[comparative psychology]] has led to many recent studies in [[animal cognition]].
 +
This way of conceiving mental processes has pervaded psychology more generally over the past few decades, and it is not uncommon to find cognitive theories within [[social psychology]], [[personality psychology]], [[abnormal psychology]], and [[developmental psychology]]; the application of cognitive theories to [[comparative psychology]] has driven many recent studies in [[animal cognition]].
   
 
The information processing approach to cognitive functioning is currently being questioned by new approaches in psychology, such as [[dynamical systems]], and the [[embodiment]] perspective.
 
The information processing approach to cognitive functioning is currently being questioned by new approaches in psychology, such as [[dynamical systems]], and the [[embodiment]] perspective.
   
−
Because of the use of computational metaphors and terminology, cognitive psychology was able to benefit greatly from the flourishing of research in [[artificial intelligence]] and other related areas in the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, it developed as one of the significant aspects of the inter-disciplinary subject of [[cognitive science]], which attempts to integrate a range of approaches in research on the mind and mental processes.
 +
Because of the use of computational metaphors and terminology, cognitive psychology was able to benefit greatly from the flourishing of research in [[artificial intelligence]] and other related areas in the [[1960s]] and [[1970s]]. In fact, it developed as one of the significant aspects of the inter-disciplinary subject of [[cognitive science]], which attempts to integrate a range of approaches in research on the mind and mental processes.
   
 
== Major research areas in cognitive psychology ==
  
== Major research areas in cognitive psychology ==
 
'''[[Perception]]'''
  
'''[[Perception]]'''
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* [[Attention]] and Filter theories (the ability to focus mental effort on specific stimuli while excluding other stimuli from consideration)
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* [[Attention]] and Filter theories (the ability to focus mental effort on specific stimuli whilst excluding other stimuli from consideration)
 
* [[Pattern recognition]] (the ability to correctly interpret ambiguous sensory information)
  
* [[Pattern recognition]] (the ability to correctly interpret ambiguous sensory information)
 
* Object recognition
  
* Object recognition
  +
* [[Sense of time|Time sensation]] (awareness and estimation of the passage of time)
   
 
'''[[Categorization]]'''
  
'''[[Categorization]]'''
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* Category induction and acquisition
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* [[Concept learning|Category induction and acquisition]]
 
* Categorical judgement and classification
  
* Categorical judgement and classification
 
* Category representation and structure
  
* Category representation and structure
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* [[Similarity (psychology)]]
   
 
'''[[Memory]]'''
  
'''[[Memory]]'''
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* [[Short-term memory]] and [[long-term memory]]
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* [[Aging and memory]]
 
* [[Autobiographical memory]]
  
* [[Autobiographical memory]]
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* [[Constructive memory]]
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* [[Emotion and memory]]
 
* [[Episodic memory]]
  
* [[Episodic memory]]
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* [[False memories]]
 
* [[Flashbulb memory]]
  
* [[Flashbulb memory]]
  +
* [[List of memory biases]]
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* [[Long-term memory]]
 
* [[Semantic memory]]
  
* [[Semantic memory]]
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* [[Constructive memory]]
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* [[Spaced repetition]]
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* [[False memories]]
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* [[Source monitoring]]
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* [[Working memory]]
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* Encoding, storing and retrieving memory-based information
  
   
 
'''[[Knowledge representation]]'''
  
'''[[Knowledge representation]]'''
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* [[Mental_image|Mental imagery]]
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* [[Mental image]]ry
 
* [[Propositional encoding]]
  
* [[Propositional encoding]]
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* [[Imagery versus proposition debate]]
  
* [[Imagery versus proposition debate]]
 
* [[dual-coding theory|Dual-coding theories]]
  
* [[dual-coding theory|Dual-coding theories]]
 
* [[Mental model]]s
  
* [[Mental model]]s
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  ⚫
'''[[Numerical cognition]]'''
   
 
'''[[Language]]'''
  
'''[[Language]]'''
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'''[[Thinking]]'''
  
'''[[Thinking]]'''
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* [[Choice]] ''(see also: [[Choice theory]])''
  ⚫
* [[Concept formation]]
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* [[Decision making]]
  ⚫
* [[Judgment and decision making]]
 
* [[Logic]], formal and natural [[reasoning]]
  
* [[Logic]], formal and natural [[reasoning]]
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* Concept formation
  
 
* [[Problem solving]]
  
* [[Problem solving]]
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* Judgment and decision making
  
   
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== Famous and/or influential cognitive psychologists ==
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== Influential cognitive psychologists ==
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{{columns-start|num=3}}
 
* [[John R. Anderson]]
  
* [[John R. Anderson]]
 
* [[Alan Baddeley]]
  
* [[Alan Baddeley]]
 
* [[Frederic Bartlett]]
  
* [[Frederic Bartlett]]
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* [[Aaron T. Beck]]
 
* [[Donald Broadbent]]
  
* [[Donald Broadbent]]
 
* [[Jerome Bruner]]
  
* [[Jerome Bruner]]
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* [[Fergus Craik]]
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* [[Kenneth Craik]]
 
* [[Hermann Ebbinghaus]]
  
* [[Hermann Ebbinghaus]]
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* [[Albert Ellis]]
 
* [[William Estes]]
  
* [[William Estes]]
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* [[Keith Holyoak]]
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* [[Marcia K. Johnson]]
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* [[Philip Johnson-Laird]]
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{{column}}
 
* [[Daniel Kahneman]]
  
* [[Daniel Kahneman]]
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* [[Elizabeth Loftus]]
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* [[James McClelland]]
 
* [[George A. Miller]]
  
* [[George A. Miller]]
 
* [[Ulrich Neisser]]
  
* [[Ulrich Neisser]]
 
* [[Allen Newell]]
  
* [[Allen Newell]]
  +
* [[Allan Paivio]]
 
* [[Jean Piaget]]
  
* [[Jean Piaget]]
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* [[Michael Posner]]
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* [[Steven Pinker]]
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* [[Michael Posner (psychologist)|Michael Posner]]
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* [[Henry L. Roediger III]]
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* [[Eleanor Rosch]]
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{{column}}
 
* [[David Rumelhart]]
  
* [[David Rumelhart]]
 
* [[Daniel Schacter]]
  
* [[Daniel Schacter]]
 
* [[Roger Shepard]]
  
* [[Roger Shepard]]
 
* [[Herbert Simon]]
  
* [[Herbert Simon]]
  +
* [[Elizabeth Spelke]]
  +
* [[George Sperling]]
  +
* [[Saul Sternberg]]
  +
* [[Larry Squire]]
 
* [[Endel Tulving]]
  
* [[Endel Tulving]]
 
* [[Anne Treisman]]
  
* [[Anne Treisman]]
  +
* [[Ken Nakayama]]
 
* [[Amos Tversky]]
  
* [[Amos Tversky]]
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* [[Lev Vygotsky]]
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{{columns-end}}
   
 
== See also ==
  
== See also ==
⚫
* [[Cognition]]
  
⚫
* [[Human cognition]]
  
 
* [[Animal cognition]]
  
* [[Animal cognition]]
  ⚫
* [[Cognition]]
 
* [[Cognitive bias]]
  
* [[Cognitive bias]]
  ⚫
* [[Cognitive Interventions]]
 
* [[Cognitive neuropsychology]]
  
* [[Cognitive neuropsychology]]
 
* [[Cognitive neuroscience]]
  
* [[Cognitive neuroscience]]
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* [[Connectionism]]
  
* [[Connectionism]]
 
* [[Discursive psychology]]
  
* [[Discursive psychology]]
  +
* [[Ecological psychology]]
 
* [[Evolutionary psychology]]
  
* [[Evolutionary psychology]]
  +
* [[Intelligent system]]
 
* [[Neurocognitive]]
  
* [[Neurocognitive]]
 
* [[Neuropsychology]]
  
* [[Neuropsychology]]
 
* [[Situated cognition]]
  
* [[Situated cognition]]
 
* [[Political psychology]]
  
* [[Political psychology]]
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* [[Cognitive modeling]]
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* [[Psycholinguistics]]
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* [[Mental model]]
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* [[Psychological adaptation]]
   
  ⚫
=== Related list ===
  ⚫
* [[List of publications in psychology#Cognitive psychology|Important publications in cognitive psychology]]
   
  ⚫
== External links ==
  ⚫
* [http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/topic.htm#cognition Famous papers in the history of cognition]
   
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* [http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Cognitive_psychology Cognitive psychology at The Psychology Wiki]
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* [http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/cognitive.html Cognitive Approach in Psychology]
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* [http://www.sofiatopia.org/equiaeon/intelligent_wisdom.htm The Cognitive Continuum from Myth to Nondual Thought]
   
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[[Cognitive map]]
 
−  
−  
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[[Cognitive space]]
  
⚫
=== Related lists ===
  
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* [[List of publications in psychology#Cognitive psychology | Important publications in cognitive psychology ]]
  
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== External links ==
  
⚫
* [http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/topic.htm#cognition Famous papers in the history of cognition]
  
   
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{{psychology navigation}}
 
[[Category:Cognition]]
  
[[Category:Cognition]]
 
[[Category:Cognitive science|Psychology]]
  
[[Category:Cognitive science|Psychology]]
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[[Category:Psychology]]
   
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Revision as of 22:58, 29 July 2007

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Cognitive psychology is the school of psychology that examines internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, and language. It had its foundations in the Gestalt psychology of Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka, and in the work of Jean Piaget, who studied intellectual development in children. Cognitive psychologists are interested in how people understand, diagnose, and solve problems, concerning themselves with the mental processes which mediate between stimulus and response. Cognitive theory contends that solutions to problems take the form of algorithms—rules that are not necessarily understood but promise a solution, or heuristics—rules that are understood but that do not always guarantee solutions. In other instances, solutions may be found through insight, a sudden awareness of relationships.

History

Ulric Neisser coined the term 'cognitive psychology' in his book published in 1967, wherein Neisser provides a definition of cognitive psychology, emphasising that it is a point of view which postulates the mind as having a certain conceptual structure. Neisser's point of view endows the discipline a scope which expands beyond high-level concepts such as "reasoning", often espoused in other works as a definition of cognitive psychology. Neisser's definition of cognition illustrates this well:

...the term "cognition" refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is concerned with these processes even when they operate in the absence of relevant stimulation, as in images and hallucinations... Given such a sweeping definition, it is apparent that cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do; that every psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon. But although cognitive psychology is concerned with all human activity rather than some fraction of it, the concern is from a particular point of view. Other viewpoints are equally legitimate and necessary. Dynamic psychology, which begins with motives rather than with sensory input, is a case in point. Instead of asking how a man's actions and experiences result from what he saw, remembered, or believed, the dynamic psychologist asks how they follow from the subject's goals, needs, or instincts.

Cognitive psychology is radically different from previous psychological approaches in two key ways.

The school of thought arising from this approach is known as cognitivism.

Cognitive psychology is one of the more recent additions to psychological research, having only developed as a separate area within the discipline since the late 1950s and early 1960s (though there are examples of cognitive thinking from earlier researchers). The cognitive approach was brought to prominence by Donald Broadbent's book Perception and Communication in 1958. Since that time, the dominant paradigm in the area has been the information processing model of cognition that Broadbent put forward. This is a way of thinking and reasoning about mental processes, envisaging them as software running on the computer that is the brain. Theories refer to forms of input, representation, computation or processing, and outputs. Applied to language as the primary mental knowledge representation system, cognitive psychology has exploited tree and network mental models. Its singular contribution to AI and psychology in general is the notion of a semantic network. One of the first cognitive psychologists, George Miller is well-known for dedicating his career to the development of WordNet, a semantic network for the English language. Development began in 1985 and is now the foundation for many machine ontologies.

This way of conceiving mental processes has pervaded psychology more generally over the past few decades, and it is not uncommon to find cognitive theories within social psychology, personality psychology, abnormal psychology, and developmental psychology; the application of cognitive theories to comparative psychology has driven many recent studies in animal cognition.

The information processing approach to cognitive functioning is currently being questioned by new approaches in psychology, such as dynamical systems, and the embodiment perspective.

Because of the use of computational metaphors and terminology, cognitive psychology was able to benefit greatly from the flourishing of research in artificial intelligence and other related areas in the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, it developed as one of the significant aspects of the inter-disciplinary subject of cognitive science, which attempts to integrate a range of approaches in research on the mind and mental processes.

Major research areas in cognitive psychology

Perception

  • Attention and Filter theories (the ability to focus mental effort on specific stimuli whilst excluding other stimuli from consideration)
  • Pattern recognition (the ability to correctly interpret ambiguous sensory information)
  • Object recognition
  • Time sensation (awareness and estimation of the passage of time)

Categorization

Memory

Knowledge representation

Numerical cognition

Language

Thinking

Influential cognitive psychologists


See also

Related list

External links


Psychology

Psi2

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