Cognitive psychology is the study of how people think. Cognitive psychology is the study of internal mental processes such as perception, attention, language, memory, problem solving, decision-making, creativity and reasoning. How does our minds process information? What do we perceive and what parts do we filter out as unimportant? How do our thoughts lead to certain emotions and behaviors?
Cognitive psychology theories state that our thoughts are important to perceiving and responding to the world around us.
The first half of the 20th century was dominated by two camps of psychology-thinking. Behaviorism concentrated on learning theory and psychoanalysis which focused on the unconscious and early child development.
As Wikipedia says: “Some limitations of the cognitive approach include its tendency to oversimplify complex human behavior and its difficulty in explaining emotional and irrational behavior. Additionally, it may not fully account for the influence of cultural and social factors on cognition”. In an attempt to simply mention some emotions and thoughts. I will look to a book by Brene Brown called Atlas of the Heart.
Can we make a conscious effort to change our thinking? Do we want to? Are you finding that perhaps your thinking has become too negative? The good news is that we can change. “Be transformed by making your mind over, so that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2. We need to continually examine ourselves to see if we are thinking and acting in productive ways that please God. The Bible says we can change and so does Carol Dweck in her book Mindset.
At the beginning of the 21st century, cognitive psychology is still the dominant approach to the subject.
The Zeigarnik effect states that students retained more if they had frequent breaks while studying. This finding also has application in advertising and media.
In the 1960’s, the “cognitive revolution” was gaining momentum. The human brain was thought of as an information processor. Jerome Bruner studied cognitive processes in children. He wondered how we acquire and store information. He advocated for not merely feeding information, but participating in the process of learning. We need to actively participate and reason, rather than passively absorb information. Participation gives knowledge meaning. The acquisition of knowledge is a process, not a product or end result. The teacher’s role is to encourage and guide. Ideas should be first presented in a simple and intuitive way. These ideas are then continuously revisited and reconstructed in an increasingly formal way. Finally, they are connected to other knowledge for comprehensive mastery on the subject.
Cognitive dissonance is briefly defined in our post called Atlas of the Heart.
George Armitage Miller focused on mental processes, such as memory and attention. Some researchers have claimed that human short-term memory is limited to about seven (7) items.
Aaron T. Beck (1921-2021) investigated cognitive therapy. He’s known as the father of cognitive therapy. Behaviorism was being overtaken by cognitive psychology by the mid 20th century. At the same time, there was no replacement for the psychoanalytical model (clinical sphere). Beck was skeptical of psychoanalysis and its therapy. He wanted the focus to be on the needs of the individual. Beck, or Tim as he liked to be called, studied depression, emotional disorders, anger, hate, hostility and violence.
Sometimes the most important theoretical discoveries are often made while attempting to find solutions to practical problems. Enter Donald Broadbent and his experience in the RAF. Pilots sometimes confused similar looking controls in the cockpit. Broadbent wanted to use psychology to design better equipment. He realized that mistakes could be made when there are too many incoming sources of information. With all of this information, how do we filter out information?
What are the different types of memory? Endel Tulving studied memory. The “cognitive revolution” took place after World War II. They began to view the brain as an information processor that had a short-term and long-term memory component.