Until fairly recently, all humans were expected to operate according to a particular standard. Children were all expected to have about the same level of intellectual ability according to their age group. Adults should all be capable of learning and performing the same tasks. And everyone, adult or child, should behave according to prescribed norms. Any deviation from set standards signalled that the deviant must somehow be defective.
So it had been for nearly all of recorded human history. And then, about 60 years ago, a German-American psychologist named Ulric Neisser made cognitive psychology mainstream. Until then, behavioural psychologists acknowledged cognition but only as a component of behaviourism. After all, you can't observe how a person learns or how a brain functions, right?
That's the essence of cognitive psychology. It focuses on how the brain works. How we take information in, process stimuli, learn and remember all are aspects of cognitive psychology studies. Even in 1967 when he published his book, Dr Neisser knew how broad cognitive psychology's definition was. We want to review this psyc field for you. In this article, we'll highlight the reasons for these studies and present the criticisms this branch of psychology strives to overcome.
Cognitive Psychology Background Information
All the types of psychology studied today, including cognitive psychology, have their roots in philosophical study. But we could argue that philosophy is, to a great extent, the study of cognition. Indeed, humans pondering life's greatest questions mainly revolved around the human mind and its processes.
Plato correctly identified the brain as the human body's central processor in 387 BCE. To put it succinctly, he effectively concluded that the brain drives the body as well as the intellect. That theory apparently faced little challenge until René Descartes introduced the concept of mind-body dualism. The mind and body are separate entities averred Descartes. Everyone is born with innate ideas which develop apart from the physical body. In short, the body and the mind were two different substances.
This theory is better known as substance dualism. It has arguments for and against, as just about every theory does. But what makes Descartes' idea noteworthy is the splitting off of philosophical discussions. One side contended empiricism - the idea that human thought was strictly experiential. The other camp insisted that innate knowledge shaped human thought. They argued the nativist position.
As the philosophical debate raged on, medical doctors were exploring the brain's physical structures. French anatomist Paul Broca discovered that organ's language centre. German neuropathologist Carl Wernicke identified the brain's language comprehension areas. As more physicians worked with trauma patients, they put paid to the question of whether a physical, observable organ had any impact on cognition.
What is Cognitive Psychology?
Despite Broca's and others' discoveries, behavioural psychology remained the norm for psyc studies. Examining concepts like memory, ideas, thoughts and consciousness itself lay outside of the scientific realm. It's a valid distinction. How do you measure an idea? How can you study a thought? But then, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget came along to shake things up.
Admittedly, Piaget is better known for his theories of developmental psychology. Most remember him for his early work in that field but he contributed substantially to cognitive development's body of knowledge, too. In fact, much of his later career was dedicated to studying intelligence and language acquisition and usage in children and adults.
Those are just two of the areas cognitive studies focus on. This field of study also examines reasoning, problem-solving and creativity, as well as memory and perception. You might think that, because these are areas of study, the term 'cognitive science' would be more apt. You're quite right.
The line between cognitive psychology and cognitive science often isn't precise. Perhaps the easiest way to make the distinction clear is by identifying what each does. Cognitive scientists conduct experiments and formulate the theories that cognitive psychologists apply in their practice.
To be sure, both conduct experiments and lead studies but the cognitive scientist has a bit more leeway. For instance, should a psychologist implant electrodes in their patients' brains to measure a reaction, they'd soon be up on ethical charges. By contrast, a cognitive scientist may run as many experiments on mice with implanted electrodes as they'd like.
Cognitive scientists are involved in developing artificial intelligence (AI). One might say that, in this role, these scientists are trying to forward-engineer cognitive processes. By contrast, cognitive psychologists' work is understanding humans' innate wiring for intelligence, learning and memory. The AI question underscores the distinction between science and psychology. However, both fields of study involve creating models for information input and processing.
Cognitive Psychology Theories
Unlike other types of psychological study, cognitive psychology is a touch light on theory. Social psychology, for example, offers up a range of theories, some of them conflicting. But how can you theorise about acquiring knowledge or how memory forms? From the behaviourist perspective, two theories dominate.
The Classic Conditioning Theory is most often associated with Ivan Pavlov, he of the salivating dogs. Until Pavlov conducted his salivary gland experiments, his mutts were neutral towards the sound of a bell. However, as the dogs mastered the idea that the bell was linked to receiving food, they would start salivating when the bell chimed rather than when the food was presented.
This theory's opposite is the Operant Conditioning Theory. American psychologist B. F. Skinner postulated that when people experience a significant event, they learn from it. If the experience had a positive outcome, the person would repeat the behavior. A bad outcome naturally provoked avoidance of that behavior. A toddler touching a hot stove is a universal example of operant conditioning theory.
No discussion of cognitive psychology theories would be complete without mentioning the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. American developmental psychologist Howard Gardner advanced the theory that people are not limited to only one type of intelligence. He initially proposed eight types of intelligence. Those supporting his theory suggest there may be many more.
Cognitive Psychology Controversies and Criticisms
Dr Gardner's theory has faced substantial backlash for, among other reasons, a lack of empirical evidence. They further criticise this model because it relies on the clinician making subjective judgments. But Dr Gardner is far from the first to advance cognitive psychology theories only to have them derided.
It seems the whole field of study has laboured under a cloud of pessimism pretty much since its inception. Cognitive psychology 'broke away' from behavioural studies in the early 60s. Since then, it has taken flack for being too 'messy'. Chief among the criticisms is the many varieties of cognitive studies with neither distinction nor accord between them. Compared to the well-defined study of forensic psychology, it seems that cognitive psychology doesn't know what it wants to find out.
The medical community don't see eye to eye with cognitive psychologists, either. Among other reasons, the models these psychologists create to explain brain functions don't map well onto brain scans. For instance, the mental model theory tried to link visual thinking with deductive reasoning. Brain scans proved that approach simply doesn't work.
Applications of Cognitive Psychology
If there's so much controversy surrounding cognitive psychology, what good is it? We'll answer your question with one of ours: have you ever heard of cognitive behavior therapy? It's used to treat addiction, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and a range of other mental conditions.
Social aggression has become a widespread phenomenon that psychologists of all stripes have trouble understanding. They've developed social information processing models to explore how online communication helps develop the ability to process social information. Such social cognition studies will help psychologists devise suitable treatment plans.
Educational psychology and cognitive psychology run on parallel tracks. Over the last few years, knowledge organisation has been a particular area of focus. It looks at how hierarchical information organisation meshes with the brain's circuitry, among other areas. Maths presents a good example of hierarchical information organisation. First, students learn arithmetic, then algebra, then geometry and so on.
Cognitive psychology also helps integrate declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. The former represents all of the things that students know and the latter covers specific knowledge needed to execute specific tasks. When properly applied, students will learn how to integrate those cognitive aspects to speed up their learning.
Also related to educational psychology, metacognition entails self-monitoring, among many other concepts. Metacognition is essentially thinking about how you think. Fairly early in their academic career, students will learn to appraise their own knowledge stores. Cognitive (and educational) psychology encourages students to assess what they know and where they're lacking. They should then engage in self-study, a common strategy for filling in knowledge gaps.
Just as organisational psychology is applied in workplaces, cognitive psychology is applied anywhere a brain is working. Granted, this field takes a bit of a scattered approach to cover a lot of ground. Still, despite the backlash, cognitive psychologists don't let others' lack of understanding stymie their efforts. Thanks to their work. our understanding of mental processes grows.
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