Cognitive Contexts

Cognitive Contexts
The workings of the human mind have been pondered throughout recorded
history. The science of psychology, however, only dates back to 1879,
when Wilhelm Wundt established the first laboratory for the study of psychology
in Leipzig, Germany. Although the term was not yet popular,
Wundt’s primary interest was clearly in cognition. His students laboriously
practiced the technique of introspection (the careful attention to, and the
objective reporting of, one’s own sensations, experiences, and thoughts), as
Wundt hoped to identify through this method the basic elements of human
thought. Wundt’s interests remained fairly popular until around 1920. At
that time, John B. Watson, a noted American psychologist and behaviorist,
spearheaded a campaign to redefine the agenda of psychology. Watson was
convinced that the workings of the mind could not be objectively studied
through introspection and hence mandated that the proper subject matter
for psychologists should be overt, observable behaviors exclusively. In this
way, dissatisfaction with a method of research (introspection) led to the
abandonment of an important psychological topic (mental activity).
In the 1950’s, a number of forces came into play that led to the reemergence
of cognitive psychology in the United States. First, during World War
II, considerable research had been devoted to human-factors issues such as
human skills and performance within, for example, the confines of a tank or
cockpit. After the war, researchers showed continued interest in human attention,
perception, decision making, and so on, and they were influenced
by a branch of communication science, known as information theory, that
dealt abstractly with questions of information processing. The integration of
these two topics resulted eventually in the modern information-processing
model, mentioned above.
Second, explosive gains were made in the field of computer science. Of
particular interest to psychology were advances in the area of artificial intelligence.
It was a natural progression for psychologists to begin comparing
computer and brain processes, and this analogy served to facilitate cognitive
research.
Third, there was growing dissatisfaction with behavioral psychology as defined
by Watson and with its seeming inability to explain complex psychological phenomena. In particular, Noam Chomsky, a well-known linguist,
proposed that the structure of language was too complicated to be acquired
via the principles of behaviorism. It became apparent to many psychologists
that to understand truly the diversity of human behavior, internal mental
processes would have to be accepted and scientifically studied.
Working memory emerged as an important theoretical construct in the
1980’s and 1990’s. Everyday cognitive tasks�"such as reading a newspaper
article or calculating the appropriate amount to tip in a restaurant�"often
involve multiple steps with intermediate results that need to be kept in mind
temporarily to accomplish the task at hand successfully. “Working memory”
refers to the system or mechanism underlying the maintenance of taskrelevant
information during the performance of a cognitive task. As the
“hub of cognition,” working memory has been called “perhaps the most significant
achievement of human mental evolution.” According to Alan Baddeley,
working memory comprises a visuospatial sketchpad; a phonological
loop, concerned with acoustic and verbal information; a central executive
that is involved in the control and regulation of the system; and an episodic
buffer that combines information from long-term memory with that from
the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop. Prospective memory
is also emerging as an important domain of research in cognitive psychology.
This type of memory involves the intention to carry out an action in the
future: for instance, to pick up dry cleaning after work.
Cognitive psychology is now a vibrant subdiscipline that has attracted
some of the finest scientific minds. It is a standard component in most undergraduate
and graduate psychology programs. More than half a dozen academic
journals are devoted to its research, and it continues to pursue answers
to questions that are important to psychology and other disciplines as
well. The cognitive perspective has heavily influenced other subfields of psychology.
For example, many social psychologists are interested in social cognition,
the reasoning underlying such phenomena as prejudice, altruism,
and persuasion. Some clinical psychologists are interested in understanding
the abnormal thought processes underlying problems such as depression
and anorexia nervosa. A subspecialty�"cognitive behavioral therapy�"treats
mental illness using methods that attempt to directly treat these abnormal
thoughts.
The burgeoning field of cognitive science represents a union of cognitive
psychology, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics, and philosophy.
Cognitive scientists are concerned with mental processes but are particularly
interested in establishing general, fundamental principles of information
processing as they may be applied by humans or machines. Their research
is often heavily dependent on complex computer models rather than
experimentation with humans. With fast-paced advances in computer technology,
and the exciting potential of expertise shared in an interdisciplinary
fashion, the field of cognitive science holds considerable promise for answering
questions about human cognition.

Sources for Further Study
Ashcraft, Mark H. Human Memory and Cognition. 2d ed. New York: Harper-
Collins College, 1994. A fine textbook, geared for college students who
have had some background in psychology but accessible to the inquisitive
layperson. Ashcraft writes informally and provides chapter outlines and
summaries, a glossary of key terms, and suggested supplemental readings.
Perception and attention, memory, language, reasoning, decision
making, and problem solving are all well covered.
Baddeley, Alan D. “The Cognitive Psychology of Everyday Life.” British Journal
of Psychology 72, no. 2 (1981): 257-269. An interesting journal article in
which Baddeley describes his research conducted outside the laboratory
environment. Considers such practical topics as absentmindedness, alcohol
effects, and the effectiveness of saturation advertising. A must for
those who question the ecological validity (the real-life applicability) of
cognitive research.
Berger, Dale E., Kathy Pezdek, and William P. Banks, eds. Applications of
Cognitive Psychology. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1987. Five chapters
each on three topics: educational applications, teaching of thinking
and problem solving, and human-computer interactions. The chapters
range in sophistication and accessibility, so this book should appeal to
readers of diverse backgrounds. Includes helpful name and subject indexes.
Hochberg, Julian. Perception and Cognition at Century’s End. San Diego, Calif.:
Academic Press, 1998. This book reviews research findings over the preceding
half-century in broad areas of perception and other aspects of
cognitive functioning.
Kahneman, Daniel, Paul Slovic, and Amos Tversky, eds. Judgment Under Uncertainty:
Heuristics and Biases. New York: Cambridge University Press,
1987. A comprehensive source on heuristics and decision making with an
easy-to-understand introductory chapter by the editors. A four-chapter
section is devoted to the availability heuristic, and there is an interesting
chapter on probabilistic reasoning in clinical medicine.
Kendler, Howard H. Historical Foundations of Modern Psychology. Chicago:
Dorsey Press, 1987. A well-written account of the emergence of cognitive
psychology and the contributions of other disciplines such as linguistics,
engineering, and computer science. Approachable for the layperson;
provides a fine historical backdrop. It is of limited use, beyond review, for
the upper-level college student.
Miyake, Akira, and Priti Shah, eds. Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of
Active Maintenance and Executive Control. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1999. This volume compares and contrasts existing models of working
memory. It does so by asking each contributor to address the same
comprehensive set of important theoretical questions on working memory.
The answers to these questions provided in the volume elucidate the
emerging general consensus on the nature of working memory among different theorists and crystallize incompatible theoretical claims that
must be resolved in future.
Pinker, Steven. How the Mind Works. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Pinker,
one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists, discusses what the mind is,
how it evolved, and how it allows one to see, think, feel, laugh, interact,
enjoy the arts, and ponder the mysteries of life. He explains the mind by
“reverse-engineering” it—figuring out what natural selection designed it
to accomplish in the environment in which humans evolved.
Sternberg, Robert J., and Talia Ben-Zeev. Complex Cognition: The Psychology of
Human Thought. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Reviews of the
key concepts and research findings within the field of cognitive psychology.
The authors offer a synthesis of the two dominant approaches in cognitive
studies—normative reference and “bounded rationality”—combining
the best elements of each to present an inclusive new theory that
emphasizes multiple points of view, including both the objective and subjective
views of the self and others.
Wells, Gary L., and Elizabeth F. Loftus, eds. Eyewitness Testimony: Psychological
Perspectives. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984. A fourteenchapter
source with heavy consideration of laboratory research and references
to courtroom cases as well. There is nice coverage of research on
children as witnesses as well as on “earwitness” testimony and the use of
hypnosis as a memory aid.
Mark B. Alcorn; updated by Allyson M. Washburn
See also: Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget; Language; Logic and Reasoning. 188