PSY/360
Knowing is the key
underpinning of cognition. Norbert
Wiener, Edward Tolman, George Miller, and Ulrich Neisser were instrumental in
the development of cognitive psychology; although, “people have been thinking
about how the mind works for more than 2,400 years” (Willingham, 2007, p. 5). Dissatisfied with the behaviorist perspective
of reasoning these men turned to the mental processes in which people perceive,
think, learn, memorize, and use information.
Turning from the observable to the unobservable, however, created its
own difficulties (e.g., how does one prove what is perceived and not seen?). Time is the answer; history has lent itself
to the development of cognitive psychology and the observation of the
unobservable.
Milestones in the Development
of Cognitive Psychology
Philosophical Underpinnings
Philosophers have pondered on such topics that involve the
relationship between the material brain, the conscious mind, and moral
motivations for over 2,400 years (Chiong, 2011; Willingham, 2007). In trying to gain access on how perception,
memory, and the origin (nature or nurture) of knowledge are attained, their
assumptions, not their questions became the springboard upon which psychology
emerged; questioning what can and cannot be explained. Such philosophical underpinnings are the
foundations of the technology that influence society even today.
The Advent of the
Scientific Method
As the age of empirical investigation advance, scientists’
became unsatisfied with only philosophical underpinnings and began to demand
scientific proof to such theories of how people think and respond. A logical process that can be observed and
contemplated; with this method, Willingham (2007) explains, “The world can be
understood and predicted” (p. 10).
Although this is a very deterministic point of view, it seems reasonable
until one tries to apply it to studying the mind. However, the struggles of trying to apply
such scientific methods to the workings of the mind ultimately launched modern
psychology.
The Rise and Fall of Behaviorism
At a time when structured, observable science was in place,
William Wundt (1832-1920) pursued, published, taught, wrote, and pushed for his
adjenda; psychology – the study of the mind. Wundt’s method of study became
known as introspectionism; however, in 1913 Watson challenged introspectionists’
assumptions that they could account for mental processes. Instead he offered behaviorism; “the study of
human psychology through the examination and analysis of objectively observable
and quantifiable behavioral events” (behaviorism, n.d., para 1). Although behaviorism provided the framework
for understanding how learning takes place, it did not answer the underlying
concerns of how human mental processes (e.g., language, and memory) function.
The Age of the
Computer
Not until the dawning of the computer age, with its capacity
to take information, store it, and retrieve it for later use, did such
metaphors for the human mind ignite.
This seemed to be the answer for mental human processes also. Believing that humans use representations and
processes, new assumptions were surfacing around this “information processing model” (Willingham, 2007, p. 28). These assumptions, suggests Willingham
(2007), are that thought and behavior are a process, objects and events (sights
and sounds) underlie processing, and information processing (interpretation of
events) is completed in organized stages (retrieved from memory and expressed
through speech and behavior). This line
of thought was useful to opening the way for further study in the area of
cognitive psychology.
Importance of
Behavioral Observation in Cognitive Psychology
Neisser (1978) once quoted “If X is an interesting or
socially important aspect of memory, then psychologists have hardly ever studied
X” (as restated by Hyman, 2012, para. 6).
With the assumptions that there is no way to observe directly mental
processes, one must infer the processes as a direct result of one’s behavior
(Willingham, 2007). Such behavioral
observation allows psychologists to test and evaluate theories and assumptions;
however, concerning cognitive psychology unobservable abstract constructs can
be used; such as those used in both computer science and neuroscience. Taking what is known and combining with
inferences, a hypothesis can be drawn and tested for outcome. This process brings cognitive psychology back
into the scientific realm.
History is a good indicator of how man’s
mental processes continue to grow and expand.
From ancient philosophers it is learned that it is not what, but how someone
goes about obtaining information that become the foundations that influence
change in society. However, even logical
processes, such as the scientific method may not be able to uncover every
truth. Behaviorism, for example, once
again took psychology away from the constructs of the mind to an observable
behavioral evaluation, even though much was learned about how behaviors are
formed, it did not explain the internal mental processes to produce said
behaviors. It was not until
psychologists metaphorically compared computer processes to human mental
processes that cognitive psychology achieved its largest advances. This, however, did incorporate the knowledge
of observation and the scientific method, brining cognitive psychology back
into the sciences. The future of
cognitive psychology is bright as it advances into the neurosciences and
perhaps back to its philosophical roots.
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