Introduction
The comprehension of how the human brain functions has been a puzzle for many people. Most people begin to think critically about the operation of the mind only after it has failed. For example, when one is not able to get something they had in their hands just a few minutes ago (Braisby and Gellaty, 2001, p.5).
That is when they scratch and beat their heads in a bid to wake it up. For many years researchers have worked tirelessly hard to get detailed information on the working of the human mind. About 200 years ago, the researchers identified theories that could explain the operations of the brain through cognitive psychology.
Definition of Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology is one of the major doctrines of psychology. It therefore examines the behavior of the internal procedures of the brain. These processes include solving problems, decision making, comprehending languages, memorizing ideas and the other functional duties of the brain.
In actual sense, cognitive psychology focuses on how the brain perceives information, transmission and processing of the input to give the output. Cognitive psychologists usually make two assumptions, the first one being that it is possible to understand and describe the components of the human mental processes.
The other one is that the mental processes of a human mind can be reported using models that are installed with specific rules and formulas. Related to cognitive psychology is cognitive science which gives a detailed look at the mechanisms of cognition (Braisby and Gellaty, 2001, p.9). Cognitive science is however divided into different sub-groups such as neuroscience, psychology, philosophy and physiology.
Key milestones in the development of cognitive psychology as a discipline
Developing cognitive psychology as a discipline was not an easy task as there were many hindrances during the stages of development. Most of these milestones greatly affected the progress of the initiative to create and develop philosophy of the mind. One of these factors was the emergence of the Christian church.
When the church arose, people turned to it and trusted everything that they got from it. The church however, was so much into the soul other than the studious material from scholars. This negatively influenced the developmental process of cognitive psychology as it was not related to theology (Eysenk, 2000, p.32). More to this was the fact that during that time people could not make intellectual decisions, they instead followed different channels.
Another hindering factor was the problem of making assumptions. The Greek philosophers had come up with three assumptions. They said that any explanations were to be of the world as it was easy to understand and predict the world. They further said that the human beings were not special.
This meant that it was easy to predict and explain the human body just like the other living and non-living creatures. This cannot be the case as without research, the mystic about the human body could not have been uncovered. The people believed in a kind of brain that could be predicted such that specific rules are applied in specific situations
The idea of applying scientific research methods during the development of cognitive psychology also affected its progress. The people could not understand how the behavior of human beings could be studied scientifically. They in fact made fun of the people who were conducting the research hence derailing the process of developing cognitive psychology.
Lastly, the objection from other great philosophers hindered development of cognitive psychology (Braisby and Gellaty, 2001, p.23). A good example is philosopher Immanuel Kant who argued that the process of the brain or mind could not be measured as they do not occupy any place other than time. He was able to convince a great number of people who therefore failed to support the process of developing cognitive psychology.
Importance of behavioral observation in cognitive psychology
The cognitive theory has been found to be a blend of the human and behavioral theories. The behavioral theory is the most defined and structuredwhile the human theory is the least structured (Eysenk, 2000, p.45). Behavioral data can therefore be used to test cognitive theories and from there make absolute conclusions. This entails getting the concepts that are not observable and manipulating them to behavior which is easy to observe.
Behavior is thus important in cognitive psychology as it makes it easier to understand. Past research shows that the origin of cognitive psychology is in the behavior of a human being. The behavioral psychologists claim that cognitive psychology is not scientific because it is more of a theory other than being obtained from experimental data. It is also difficult to prove the theories behind cognitive psychology hence the inclusion of behavioral theory as a supportive mechanism.
Behavioral observation is further classified into different divisions. Among them we have the naturalistic observation. Naturalistic observation involves keeping an eye on people as they run their normal daily errands as you not down the behavior that matters to you. A good example is watching people in a social gathering; from such a place one is able to observe the activities and draw conclusions related to human cognition hence the importance of behavior in cognitive psychology.
Reference List
Braisby, N and Gellaty, A. (2001). Foundations of Cognitive Psychology, Web.
Eysenk, M. (2000). Cognitive Psychology. Keane Psychology Press.