Page 39 - History of Psychology

Chapter

Cognitive 11

Psychology

Cognitive psychology includes such topics as memory, concept formation,
attention, reasoning, problem solving, mental imagery, judgment, and language. It
was J. S. Mill (1843/1988) and his mental chemistry that set the stage for cognitive
psychology as an experimental science of mind, and who encouraged the
development of such a science. It was J. S. Mill (1843/1988) and his mental
chemistry that set the stage for cognitive psychology as an experimental science
of mind, and who encouraged the development of such a science.

Another person in cognitive psychology is Jean Piaget (1896–1980). Piaget was
born in Neuchatel, Switzerland, the son of an academic father. Piaget outlined a
series of stages that captured this human ontogeny.
1. From birth to about age 2, the child is in the sensorimotor stage where the
infant develops associations between sensations and actions.
2. From about 2 to around 7, the child is in the preoperational stage. This stage is
when the child begins to understand how the world works and is organized, as
well as how to operate (with language and behavior) within such constraints.
3. From around 7 until about 11 or 12, the child is in the concrete operations
stage. Problem-solving skills related to tangible objects further develops
during this period.
4. The final stage—the formal operations stage—that problem-solving skills
involving abstract ideas (and ideals) takes hold.

In 1950 Alan Turing created the field of AI. AI attempts to simulate or duplicate
the intelligence exhibited by humans, using nonhuman machines such as
computers. Information processing cognitive psychology developed from
computer models. As the computer does, humans receive input; process that
input by using various programs, strategies, schemata, memories, and plans; and
then produce output. The major goal of the information processing psychologist
was to determine the mechanisms humans employ in processing information.

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