Introduction
Cognitive Psychology is a branch of psychology that studies ways in which people perceive, think, learn and remember information. It deals with the internal functions of the human brain and analyzes why people tend to remember some information and forget other data. It primarily deals with the perception and memory of human beings regarding shapes, events, languages, and other information (Balota & Marsh, 2004). Although psychologists have been studying human behavior and thought processes for a long time the area of cognitive psychology is fairly recent to the field and the most significant year for the development of cognitive psychology was 1956 when Noam Chomsky presented a theory of language and George Miller presented research on the mathematical number seven and its relationship with short term memory (Eysenck & Keane, 2005).
Main body
The cognitive revolution started in 1956 as several theories and concepts related to cognitive psychology were presented this year. The most significant breakthrough in the discipline came about when Chomsky criticized B. F. Skinner’s theory of language presented in his book. Chomsky presented a notion that language use is based on personal creativity and imagination rather than enforcement. He argued that human beings can produce an infinite number of sentences without any difficulty. The theory presented by Chomsky and interpretation of human memory by Miller in 1956 were of critical importance in the development of cognitive psychology. The concept of Artificial Intelligence is linked with cognitive psychology and was also presented in 1956 at the Dartmouth conference (Eysenck & Keane, 2005). The actual term of cognitive psychology was developed by Ulric Neisser in 1967 in which he described human beings as active systems processing information and that brain functions could be expressed in numbers (Surprenant & Neath, 1997). The ideology of cognitive psychology which was set out in the 1950s evolved through the years and in 1980 another milestone was achieved when Daniel Dennett and Douglas Hofstadter published books on cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence. The major highlights of the cognitive revolution include theories on information, linguistics, computer science, artificial intelligence, and neurology.
Cognitive psychology is concerned with the internal functions of the brain such as perception, memory, problem-solving, and interpretation of information whereas behavioral psychology is concerned with external analysis of human psychology and studies how human beings behave in reaction to certain actions, events, or environmental changes. Cognitive psychology is deductive and human intelligence is analyzed through behavior. If the internal functioning of the human brain is studied without any references to behavior, the conclusions would not be relevant in specific situations. To derive logical and valid conclusions a cognitive psychologist should therefore analyze the functioning of a human brain when an individual is involved in a particular task. If conclusions regarding perceptions, memory, and intellect are presented without proper references to human behavior these conclusions may not be used in other instances and environments and the results would be rendered useless (Humboldt State University, 1995).
Conclusion
Cognitive and Behavioral psychological theories are also grouped to analyze human behavior in the context of perceptions. Several therapies are also based on a combination of cognitive and behavioral theories including cognitive behavioral therapy which is used to solve problems related to memory, perception, emotion, and behavior (Grazebrook & Garland, 2005). Thus it is concluded that cognitive psychology has evolved up to a great extent in recent years and behavioral observation is quite important in cognitive psychology to derive logical and valid results.
Reference List
Balota, D. A., & Marsh, E. J. (2004). Cognitive psychology: key readings. New York: Psychology Press.
Eysenck, M. W., & Keane, M. T. (2005). Cognitive psychology: a student’s handbook. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Grazebrook, K., & Garland, A. (2005). What are Cognitive and/or Behavioural Psychotherapies? Bury: British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies.
Humboldt State University. (1995). Cognitive Psychology.
Sternberg, R. J., & Mio, J. (2008). Cognitive Psychology. London: Cengage Learning.
Surprenant, A. E., & Neath, I. (1997). Cognitive Psychology. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 342-349.