Cognitive Psychology: Definition, Theories, & History​

The word “cognitive” refers to thinking. So cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that aims to understand mental processes such as perception, learning, memory, language, decision-making, and problem-solving. It also examines how these processes affect our behavior and our emotions (APA, 2023).​

Cognitive psychology has provided valuable insights into how the mind works. This knowledge has led to advancements in psychotherapy, education, decision-making, and even artificial intelligence (AI). 
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• Psychotherapy: Cognitive psychology led to the development of cognitive behavior therapy, one of the most widely used types of therapy used today. It uses a combination of behavioral and cognitive techniques focusing on examining and modifying our unhelpful thought processes and behaviors (Gaudiano, 2008). 
• Education: Because of its focus on learning, attention, and memory, cognitive psychology has made important contributions to education. For example, research shows that teachers should present information in a way that creates meaning by connecting it to existing knowledge, thus making it easier to remember (Regehr & Normal, 1996).
• Decision-making: We make decisions according to our perceptions, attention, and memory—all subjects that cognitive psychology studies. Cognitive psychology has also made significant contributions to understanding how and why we use biases (stereotyping) and heuristics (simple rules of thumb) in decision-making. Understanding our use of biases and heuristics helps us develop strategies to overcome them and make more informed decisions. This has practical applications in relationships, business, law, economics, and public policy. 
• Artificial Intelligence (AI): Studying our mental processes allows researchers to design AI systems that mimic human intelligence which makes them better at interacting with people. To create even more effective AI, researchers also aim to recreate the way humans process subjective mental experiences like emotion (Zhao et al., 2022). In addition, discoveries from cognitive psychology help researchers create more intuitive interfaces that align with our cognitive capabilities. ​

Cognitive psychology emerged as a separate branch of psychology in the mid-1900s. Here are some of the main milestones:
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• Structuralism: 
  • In 1870, German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt was the first to approach psychology as a science.  Before then, the mind was considered from a philosophical standpoint. Wundt attempted to investigate the mind through introspection, by systematically observing conscious experiences, the same way scientists in other fields observe things in the world (Braisby & Galletly, 2012). By observing patterns in reported experiences, researchers believed they were able to determine what was going on in the mind. 
  • Edward Titchener, a student of Wundt, developed this further by introducing the concept of structuralism. Structuralism attempts to break our experiences down into basic elements to analyze them. Titchener divided experiences into sensations (sights, sounds, tastes), images (thoughts, ideas), and affections (emotions).
• Behaviorism Dominance: From the 1920s to the 1950s, behaviorism (or behavioral psychology) was the dominant approach to studying behavior. This theory arose out of the criticism that introspection wasn’t scientific enough because the inner workings of the mind couldn’t be observed. By contrast, behaviorism focused on observable behavior. It claims that all behavior can be explained by examining positive reinforcements (rewards) and punishments. Thoughts, memories, and emotions were deemed “unscientific”. 
• Cognitive Revolution: In the 1950s and 60s, researchers returned to studying mental processes. This came about for several reasons. First, while behaviorism does a good job of describing behavior, it’s not so good at explaining it. Also, behaviorism was criticized because it didn’t explain complex cognitive processes and subjective experiences. Another major influencer that sparked the return to cognitive theory was renowned linguist Noam Chomsky. He argued that language acquisition couldn’t be explained only with behaviorist concepts and that much of it is innate rather than learned. 
• Mind as Computer: The development of computer science in the 1960s and 70s contributed to seeing the human mind as an information processing system and comparing it to a computer. This is often referred to as the Computational Theory of Mind (CTM). Just like a computer, the mind has inputs (through the senses), software or algorithms (the mind), hardware and memory (the brain), and outputs (behaviors).
• Cognitive Neuroscience: Starting in the 1980s, the use of brain imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allowed researchers to combine cognitive psychology with neuroscience. This technology allows researchers to observe the brain during cognitive processes. This led to the new field of cognitive neuroscience that explores the relationship of our mental processes with brain activity. 
• Contemporary Subfields: Cognitive psychology continues to evolve and has recently led to several subfields. These include attention, perception, memory, language, decision-making, and problem-solving. We’ll dive into some of these later on.

• Cognitive Load Theory (CLT): This theory is about the relationship between working memory and long-term memory. It states that working memory has a limited capacity and once that capacity has been reached, we become overloaded and learning suffers. Things that make us feel overloaded include information complexity, irrelevant information that is distracting, and efforting to connect new information to things we already know. This theory has important implications for education and for presenting new information effectively (Bannert, 2002).
• Cognitive Development: Developed by Jean Piaget in 1955, cognitive development theory says that children go through several stages (and sub-stages) as their thinking processes develop. Cognitive development theories attempt to explain the mechanisms driving how and why children’s thinking and perceiving change as they grow and mature. Many preschool and primary school programs are based on this model.
• Information Processing Theory: This theory describes our mind as a computer. It sees the brain as a processor that takes inputs (from senses, attention, and memory) and produces outputs (behaviors) like a computer. 
• Theory of Mind: This is the ability to infer what is going on in someone else’s mind, the ability to understand that someone else has different desires and emotions from yourself. This helps us to understand and predict others’ behavior.
• Dual Process Theory: This theory says that we have two different systems of thought. One is quick, unconscious, intuitive, and based on associations and emotions. The other is slow, thoughtful, conscious, and based on reason (Gronchi & Giovannelli, 2018). This theory explains how we can make decisions based on both fast, instinctive thinking and slower, deliberative reason. ​

Some other key concepts in cognitive psychology are:
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• Cognitive Development: Our cognitive abilities develop and change throughout childhood, going through different stages.
• Mental Models or Schemas: This refers to how we create mental frameworks or representations of the world to understand and interact with our environment. They serve as filters through which we perceive and interpret information, influencing our thoughts, actions, and decisions. Mental models are usually subconscious and automatic. 
• Cognitive Biases: We are all vulnerable to systematic errors in thinking when interpreting information. We tend to oversimplify things, using generalizations and stereotypes, so we can process a lot of information quickly and easily.
• Heuristics: Related to biases, heuristics are “rules of thumb”, shortcuts that allow us to make quick, although sometimes poor decisions.

An overarching approach in cognitive psychology is that mental processes such as thoughts and emotions are important factors that influence our behavior and can be studied. By contrast, behaviorism discounts internal experiences claiming only the environment shapes behavior. 

Within cognitive psychology, there are three main approaches: experimental psychology, computational psychology, and cognitive neuroscience (Forstmann et al., 2011).
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• The experimental approach focuses on behavioral data gained through structured experiments. I’ll describe some experiments next.
• The computational psychology approach uses computer and mathematical models that are designed to mimic human behavior in cognitive tasks.
• Cognitive neuroscience looks at brain measurements and how they relate to thinking and perceiving.

Here are some well-known studies from cognitive psychology:
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• False memory formation: A study from 1974 showed that our memory is affected by the way a question is asked. Participants were shown a video of a car accident and then asked questions about what happened, like how fast the cars were going. When asked “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” they gave consistently higher speed estimates than when another word was used instead of smashed, such as hit, contacted, or collided. Also, when the word “smashed” was used, more people answered “yes” to the question “Was there broken glass?” even though there wasn’t any (Loftus & Palmer, 1974).
• Biases and heuristics: A lot of research has been done on how and why our minds use biases, or stereotypes, and heuristics which are mental shortcuts. Some of the first research was done in 1974 by Tversky and Kahneman. They found that we use mental shortcuts or “rules of thumb” to make decisions easier when information is limited or when situations are complex. The same goes for biases. When we don’t have the time or the information required to make a judgment about someone, we tend to use biases. Both biases and heuristics can lead to wrong conclusions and poor decisions (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974).
• Dual-Task Performance: Have you ever felt like you missed parts of a lecture while taking notes? A study performed in 1994 gave participants two simple tasks to perform at the same time. Something like reading and watching a visual display. Unsurprisingly, performance was worse when doing both tasks as compared to doing each task individually (Pashler, 1994). This has implications for divided attention. (Ahem…texting and driving.)
• Task Switching: Similar to the above, a 2003 study looked at the cognitive processes involved in switching between tasks. Results indicate that our responses are slower and more prone to errors after switching tasks (Monsell, 2003). I definitely feel a delay in my ability to focus right after changing tasks. This has some important implications considering how often we switch between tasks every day. (Popping back and forth between computer work to email to chat to phone to interacting with people around you, etc…).
• The Stroop Effect: This classic study looked at the interference between automatic and controlled, conscious brain processes. Study participants were shown color words that were printed in a color different from the word. For example, the word “red” is printed in blue ink. Participants were instructed to name the color of the ink, rather than reading the word, and reaction times were measured. It’s harder than it sounds! Reaction times were slower and participants were more error-prone (MacLeod, 2015). This is because it’s difficult to “turn off” the unconscious impulse to read the word. You can try out the Stroop experiment here.
• The Incubation Effect: Have you ever had this experience? You’re struggling to figure out a problem, so you take a break and do something completely different, like go for a walk or listen to music. Then you come back to the problem, and the answer just comes to you. This is called the “incubation effect”. Studies show that we are more likely to solve problems when we have this incubation period (Smith & Blankenship, 1989). Researchers believe this is because the unconscious mind continues to make connections and process information when the conscious mind is focused on something else. This suggests that allowing the mind to wander can sometimes lead to unexpected insights.

Once I was listening to a story on my car radio so intently that I didn’t see my husband drive right by me waving vigorously. How was I able to filter that out so effectively? This was probably due to a phenomenon from cognitive psychology called inattentional blindness. Inattentional blindness is when we fail to see something that is unexpected even though it’s in plain sight, mostly due simply to inattention. (Clearly, my attention was not where it should have been—watching the road.)  

Cognitive psychology has contributed significantly to our understanding of attention through various theoretical models and experimental studies. One prominent model of attention is the “filter theory” proposed by Donald Broadbent. According to this model, attention acts as a filter. We only allow what we see as important to pass through our “filter” for processing while blocking out irrelevant information (Lachter et al., 2004).​

Cognitive psychology changed the way we view memory. Studies suggest that memory consists of several types that work together, challenging earlier views that memory is one thing (Baddeley, 1988). Types of memory include short-term memory, long-term memory, implicit memory, explicit memory, and sensory memory. Thus, cognitive psychology has given us a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of memory.​

Perception is the process of becoming aware of objects, relationships, and events through our senses. It involves the ability to recognize and interpret things in our environment (APA, 2023). Perception is what gives our observations meaning. Cognitive psychologists study perception to understand how we construct our subjective experiences.  

Cognition and perception influence each other. It’s a kind of two-way street with both bottom-up and top-down perception. 

Bottom-up Perception:

With bottom-up perception, we analyze what we take in through our senses (sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch) to create perceptions that make sense. Researchers investigate how we represent this information in the brain.

Top-down Perception:

Top-down perception is less straightforward. In this case, our prior knowledge influences our interpretation of what our senses take in. The brain, which is “the top” sends information down to your senses. We make predictions based on previous experience. The advantage of our mind working this way is that it requires less effort than processing loads of incoming sensory information. 

Examples are visual illusions that show how our brains fill in the gaps or see things as we predict them to be rather than as they are. A fairly well-known one is the “Rubin vase” (see image below). It’s your brain that determines whether you see a vase or two faces.​

While cognitive psychology studies the mind and behavior, neuroscience studies the brain’s structure and what it does. However, these two disciplines are intertwined. Cognitive theories have been useful in guiding neuroscience. And understanding the physical workings of the brain gives critical insights into how the mind works (Forstmann et al., 2011). 

Cognitive neuroscience merges these two disciplines. It studies the mind-brain interface, or how the brain implements cognitive processes. It examines which brain structures are responsible for which cognitive functions. To do this, researchers use brain imaging to measure which parts of the brain are active during specific mental processes. Researchers believe that the brain is a complex network from which mental states emerge (Bassett & Gazzaniga, 2011). While we have learned much, there’s still a lot that we don’t understand about the relationship between the brain and the mind.​

Strengths

• Scientific approach: Cognitive psychology is grounded in the scientific method and uses rigorous research methods to study mental processes. This approach allows for the development of reliable theories and the testing of hypotheses.
• Clinical experiments: Connected to the scientific approach, cognitive psychology uses controlled laboratory experiments which give researchers a high level of control which means that measurements and results are more reliable.
• Practical applications: It has many practical applications, some of which were described above. For example, it has led to improvements in psychotherapy, education, and technology design. Understanding our cognitive processes has helped us learn how to improve memory, problem-solving, and decision-making.
• Effective for treating anxiety: Treating anxiety is one of cognitive psychology’s most widely used practical applications. Anxiety is one of the leading mental health issues today, affecting about 18% of U.S. adults. Cognitive-behavioral therapy has shown to be an effective treatment for many (APA, 2016).

Weaknesses:

• Too much control? Although the control in a laboratory experiment gives precise results, it may not apply to “real-life” situations where there are many outside variables that affect our thinking and behavior. 
• Reductionism: Researchers tend to reduce complex cognitive processes into small components and study them individually. This may overlook the holistic nature of how the mind works, potentially missing how the different processes connect and work together. The mind is complicated!
• Limited ability to observe: Since mental processes are internal and subjective, researchers are unable to directly observe what is going on in someone’s mind. They rely on self-reports of research participants which can be unreliable (Alahmad, 2020). However, this is getting better with more advanced brain imaging devices.
• Neglects some influences: Cognitive psychology often doesn’t take into account some influences on behavior such as social, cultural, and educational factors (Alahmad, 2020). These factors can also affect how you think and process information.

​Want to learn more? Check out these articles:

• Definition of Psychology: Types, Concepts, & Examples
• Minimizing: Definition in Psychology, Theory, & Examples
• The Halo Effect: Definition, Examples, & Theory
• ​Social Psychology: Definition, Theory, & Examples​
• ​Neuropsychology: Definition, Research, & History​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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