key term - Cognitive Revolution

Definition

The cognitive revolution was a paradigm shift in psychology that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, moving the field away from the dominant behaviorist approach and towards the study of mental processes, such as perception, attention, memory, and problem-solving. This shift marked a significant change in how psychologists understood and investigated human behavior and cognition.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. The cognitive revolution was a reaction against the limitations of the behaviorist approach, which focused solely on observable behavior and ignored the role of internal mental processes.
2. Key figures in the cognitive revolution include Noam Chomsky, who challenged the behaviorist view of language acquisition, and George Miller, who explored the capacity of short-term memory.
3. The cognitive revolution led to the development of new research methods, such as computer simulations and brain imaging techniques, which allowed psychologists to study mental processes more directly.
4. The cognitive approach has had a significant impact on various fields within psychology, including perception, attention, memory, language, and decision-making.
5. The cognitive revolution has also influenced the development of related disciplines, such as cognitive science, which integrates insights from psychology, computer science, linguistics, and neuroscience.

Review Questions

• Explain how the cognitive revolution differed from the previous behaviorist approach in psychology.
  • The cognitive revolution marked a significant shift in psychology, moving away from the behaviorist focus on observable behavior and towards the study of internal mental processes. Whereas behaviorists believed that psychology should focus solely on measurable, external behaviors, the cognitive approach recognized the importance of understanding the underlying cognitive mechanisms that drive human behavior, such as perception, attention, memory, and problem-solving. This shift in perspective allowed psychologists to explore the complexities of the human mind and gain a deeper understanding of how people acquire, process, and use information.
• Describe the key contributions of Noam Chomsky and George Miller to the cognitive revolution.
  • Noam Chomsky, a linguist, challenged the behaviorist view of language acquisition by arguing that children possess an innate capacity for language that goes beyond simple stimulus-response learning. He proposed that humans have an innate 'universal grammar' that allows them to quickly and effortlessly acquire language. George Miller, a cognitive psychologist, explored the capacity of short-term memory and the limitations of human information processing. His work on the 'magical number seven, plus or minus two' demonstrated that people can only hold a limited amount of information in their immediate memory, which was a significant departure from the behaviorist view of the mind as a blank slate. These contributions helped to establish the cognitive approach as a viable alternative to the dominant behaviorist paradigm.
• Analyze the impact of the cognitive revolution on the field of psychology and related disciplines.
  • The cognitive revolution had a profound impact on the field of psychology, leading to the development of new research methods and the emergence of cognitive psychology as a distinct subfield. By shifting the focus to internal mental processes, psychologists were able to explore the complexities of human cognition using techniques like computer simulations and brain imaging. This, in turn, led to advancements in our understanding of perception, attention, memory, language, and decision-making. The cognitive revolution also influenced the development of related disciplines, such as cognitive science, which integrates insights from psychology, computer science, linguistics, and neuroscience. This interdisciplinary approach has allowed researchers to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the human mind and its capabilities. Overall, the cognitive revolution marked a significant turning point in the history of psychology, paving the way for a more nuanced and sophisticated study of human behavior and cognition.

Related terms

Behaviorism:

A school of psychology that focuses on observable behavior and the environmental factors that influence it, rather than internal mental processes.

Information Processing:

The cognitive approach that views the human mind as a information-processing system, similar to a computer, where information is acquired, encoded, stored, and retrieved.

Cognitive Psychology:

The branch of psychology that studies mental processes, such as perception, attention, memory, language, problem-solving, and decision-making.