1956 - Turning point year in cognitive psychology
Factors:
Criticism of behaviourism on its inability to explain mental activities such as memory.
Chomsky's development of language through cognitive-based explanation. Unable to explain how language occurred.
Research on organisation & structures of memory, unable to account for complex memory.
Piaget's work on development, examined how children developed mental skills.
Development of computers as how we deal with info. Info-processing approach to explain mental behaviour.
Current Status of Cognitive Psych
- Cognitive Revolution: 75% of psychologists conducting research in Universities claim to be cognitive psychologist.
- Cognitive psychology is also involved in many other areas of psychology.
- Developmental psychology looks at development of mental abilities.
- Psychobiology attempts to find biological basis for mental processes.
Criticism of cognitive psychology: Ecologically invalid, results of experiments in labs have little to do with real world.
Response: More real world research, e.g. eyewitness testimony & educational cognition.