The study of the ways in which the brain processes information is called cognitive psychology. This science focuses on the mental processes that are responsible for acquiring and using knowledge and experience which we gain from our senses. The major mental processes accountable for cognition are familiar to most people. They include perception, memory storage, learning, memory retrieval, and thinking. Information that can be subjected to cognitive processing is different and depends on the detecting system. It includes visual, gustatory and olfactory, auditory, and tactile sensitivity. Symbolic language is another type of information that is very important as it can represent any other type of information. Cognitive psychology poses significant questions about knowing, acting, understanding our experience in this world. For example, how do people remember and use symbols, and afterward internalize other perspectives, make logical connections, and trust their insight, or to what extent neurophysiology, our relationships with others, our physical environment, and our unique histories are able to determine cognitive abilities? Another question could concern the concept of our best knowledge, whether it is abstract and objective or concrete and subjective.
The first experiments in the field of cognitive psychology were performed over one hundred years ago. Many ancient philosophers were interested in cognitive processes, but only in the late nineteenth century was it attempted to scientifically study cognitive psychology in laboratory conditions. The earliest discoveries in the fields of perception and attention were made by Wundt in 1874, memory – by Ebbinghaus in 1885, learning – by Thorndike in 1914, and imagery – by Galton in 1883. The work of these scientists was mainly directed at cognitive process study, the results of which later on led to theories that attempted to explain the obtained findings. The research techniques developed in those days were of long-lasting value to the later psychologists. Bartlett, in 1932 proposed a new approach to cognitive psychology research. He claimed that the studies must be relevant to the real world; in other words, the researchers should utilize more natural test materials and experimental designs that should have some resemblance to real-life situations. Bartlett’s input into the cognitive psychology field had a significant influence on future researchers. The Second World War provided scientists with dramatic technological improvements, which increased the rate of cognitive psychology development. The technological advance also placed unequal demands on those individuals who had to operate the newly appearing gadgets. There was a need for better cognitive process understanding, which would include the studying of attention limitations of people working with radars and high-speed aircraft. Donald Broadbent was a British psychologist and a former pilot who had experienced cognitive problems of flying at high speed. In 1958 he started investigating human capabilities concerning information processing from two or more perceptual inputs. He was the first one to implement “dichotic listening” (different audio input in the left and in the right ear) in order to test the human attention limitations.
Skinner was a scientist who significantly influenced the development of behavioral psychology. He noticed that the consequences of human behavior tend to shape it. He claimed that psychology is a science that studies mainly behavior and the behavior is pretty much determined by its results. Although his methods showed effectiveness in assisting people in changing their behavior, the behaviorists missed the fact that in order to educate, more than just behavior modification is required. They neglected that in order to educate effectively, the teacher has to help the student learn to develop learning strategies. Behavioral observation is an important tool in the arsenal of cognitive psychology research. It uses such methods as observational studies of real-life tasks, where the behavior of experts that are performing familiar tasks is observed and is compared to the behavior of a novice in this field. In order to make a contrast, experts of different specialties may be used to perform the same task. An observational study has been carried out in order to analyze the ability of different experts to work with a particular radar system. This study revealed that those professionals who possessed the theoretical knowledge of the radar system solely were unable to perform sufficient troubleshooting. (Schaafstal, Schraagen & Berlo, 2000, p. 75). Other methods of behavioral observation include the use of verbal protocols and controlled experiments. The latter one could be used, for example, to assess whether the new training innovation had the expected effect. It is carried out not as a laboratory experiment but rather a controlled experiment in naturalistic conditions. These techniques are of tremendous importance to cognitive psychology as they provide the ability to study the subject in great detail.
References
Barsalou, L. W. (1992). Cognitive Psychology: An Overview for Cognitive Scientists. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lachman, R., Butterfield, C., & Lachman, J. L. (1979). Cognitive Psychology and Information Processing: An Introduction. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Schaafstal, A., Schraagen, J. M., & Berlo, M. V. (2000). Cognitive Task Analysis and Innovation of Training: The Case of Structured Troubleshooting. Human Factors, 42(1), 75.