The Psychology Book

158

T

he first half of the 20th
century was dominated by
two strands of thinking in
psychology: behaviorism (which
concentrated on learning theory)
and psychoanalysis (which focused
on the unconscious and development
in early childhood). The mental
processes that had preoccupied
psychologists in the previous
century, such as perception,
consciousness, and memory,
were largely neglected.
There were inevitably some
exceptions. Psychologists Frederic
Bartlett of the UK and Bluma
Zeigarnik of Russia were both
studying the process of memory in
the 1920s and 30s, anticipating the
work of later cognitive psychologists.
In Germany, Wolfgang Köhler’s
work on problem-solving and
decision-making drew on Gestalt

psychology—a German school of

thought that concentrated on

perception and perceptual

organization—and was also a

precursor of cognitive psychology.

The cognitive revolution

What eventually swung the balance

from interest in behavior to the

study of mental processes came from

outside psychology. Improvements

in communications and computer

technology, and possibilities opened

up by artificial intelligence—then

a growing field thanks to advances

made during World War II—led to

a new way of thinking about the

brain: as an information processor.

The mental processes, referred to

as “cognitive processes” or

“cognition,” which behaviorism

would not or could not examine,

now had a model for psychologists

to work from. At the same time,

advances in neuroscience led to a

greater understanding of the

functions of the brain and nervous

system. This allowed psychologists,

notably Donald Hebb, to examine

mental processes directly, rather

than merely inferring them from

observations of behavior.

One of the first to apply the

information-processing analogy to

psychology was a student of Frederic

Bartlett’s at Cambridge, Donald

Broadbent, who had been inspired

by the work of computer scientist

Alan Turing and communications

expert Colin Cherry in the 1940s

and 50s. But the turning point came

in the US, where behaviorism

began to be criticized for its

limitations, leading to a so-called

“cognitive revolution” in the late

1950s. In the vanguard of this

INTRODUCTION

1947

Jerome Bruner and Cecile

Goodman publish Va lue

and Need as Organizing

Factors in Perception,

arguing that motivated

reasoning affects

perception.

1885

Hermann Ebbinghaus’s
“nonsense syllables”
experiments show a
method for studying
cognitive processes.

1950

Alan Turing publishes

Computing Machinery

and Intelligence, in which

he describes the human

brain as an “organized

machine” that learns

through experience.

1957

Leon Festinger’s A

Theory of Cognitive

Dissonance suggests

there is a human drive for

consistency of beliefs.

1932

Frederic Bartlett studies

reconstructive

memory in The War of

the Ghosts.

1949

Donald Hebb explains

learning in terms of

connections between

stimuli and neurons.

1956

George Armitage

Miller argues that the

human brain can only

hold seven chunks

of information

at once.

1958

Donald Broadbent

publishes Perception and

Communication,

introducing the

information-processing

model of cognition.