Who was the founder of cognitive psychology and their impact

Who was the founder of cognitive psychology, and how did this pivotal figure ignite a revolution in understanding the human mind? Prepare to dive into the fascinating journey of a field that shifted our gaze from observable behaviors to the intricate workings of thought, memory, and perception. This exploration will unveil the intellectual currents and groundbreaking ideas that propelled cognitive psychology from its nascent stages to becoming a cornerstone of modern science.

We’ll journey back to a time when psychology was largely dominated by behaviorism, a perspective that focused solely on observable actions. Then, we’ll discover the crucial shifts in thinking and the primary reasons why a new approach, one that dared to peek inside the “black box” of the mind, became not just necessary but inevitable. Get ready to meet the brilliant minds and pivotal moments that redefined what it means to study the human psyche.

Introduction to the Emergence of Cognitive Psychology

The mid-20th century marked a pivotal era in psychology, characterized by a growing dissatisfaction with the dominant behaviorist paradigm. While behaviorism, with its focus on observable stimulus-response associations, had achieved considerable success in explaining learning and animal behavior, it proved inadequate for addressing the complexities of human thought, memory, problem-solving, and language. This intellectual climate created fertile ground for a new approach that could delve into the internal mental processes that behaviorism largely ignored.The development of cognitive psychology was not an abrupt revolution but rather a gradual evolution fueled by several key intellectual shifts and advancements across related disciplines.

A growing recognition of the limitations of behaviorism’s reductionist approach, coupled with influences from fields like linguistics, computer science, and neuroscience, collectively paved the way for a renewed interest in the mind as a subject of scientific inquiry. This interdisciplinary ferment fostered a conceptual toolkit and a theoretical framework that allowed for the systematic study of internal mental operations.The primary reasons cognitive psychology became distinct from earlier psychological approaches, particularly behaviorism, lie in its fundamental shift in focus and methodology.

Behaviorism’s insistence on studying only observable behavior, eschewing any consideration of internal mental states, was directly challenged by cognitive psychology. Instead, cognitive psychology embraced the study of internal mental processes such as perception, attention, memory, language, and problem-solving, treating the mind as an active information processor. This marked a significant departure, re-establishing the mind as a legitimate and central object of psychological investigation.

So, like, while Ulric Neisser is totally credited with kicking off cognitive psychology, it’s kinda interesting to think about how different fields can boost your understanding. For example, figuring out what is a good minor for psychology , like maybe linguistics or computer science, can really add depth. It all circles back to how we process information, a core idea for any cognitive psychology enthusiast, much like Neisser himself.

Historical Context and the Decline of Behaviorism, Who was the founder of cognitive psychology

The dominance of behaviorism in the first half of the 20th century, championed by figures like John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, significantly shaped psychological research. Behaviorism posited that psychology should be an objective science focused solely on observable behavior and its relationship to environmental stimuli. This approach was highly successful in explaining phenomena like classical and operant conditioning, leading to practical applications in areas such as therapy and education.

However, its strict adherence to observable phenomena meant that complex human experiences, such as thinking, feeling, and conscious awareness, were relegated to the realm of introspection and deemed unscientific. This created a void in explaining phenomena that could not be readily reduced to simple stimulus-response chains, leading to a growing sense of incompleteness within the field.

Key Intellectual Shifts Paving the Way

Several critical intellectual developments in the mid-20th century converged to facilitate the rise of cognitive psychology. The advent of the computer provided a powerful new metaphor for understanding the mind, conceptualizing it as an information processing system. This led to the development of computational models of cognitive processes. Simultaneously, advancements in linguistics, particularly Noam Chomsky’s critique of behaviorist explanations of language acquisition, highlighted the inadequacy of purely behavioral accounts for complex cognitive abilities.

Furthermore, early work in neuroscience began to reveal the biological underpinnings of mental processes, offering a more nuanced understanding of how the brain supports cognition.These shifts can be summarized as follows:

• The Computer Metaphor: The development of digital computers offered a novel framework for conceptualizing mental operations. The idea that the mind, like a computer, could receive, store, process, and retrieve information provided a tangible model for studying cognitive functions.
• Linguistic Revolutions: Noam Chomsky’s seminal work, particularly his critique of B.F. Skinner’s “Verbal Behavior,” challenged the behaviorist explanation of language. Chomsky argued for the existence of innate linguistic structures and generative rules, underscoring the need to study the internal mental mechanisms underlying language.
• Information Processing Theory: Building on the computer metaphor, information processing theories emerged, proposing that cognitive tasks could be broken down into a series of sequential or parallel stages, each involving specific operations on information.
• Neuroscience Advancements: Progress in understanding the brain’s structure and function, through techniques like electroencephalography (EEG) and later more sophisticated imaging methods, began to link specific brain regions and activities to cognitive processes, providing biological grounding for cognitive research.

Reasons for Distinctiveness from Earlier Approaches

Cognitive psychology distinguished itself from earlier psychological approaches primarily through its explicit focus on internal mental processes and its adoption of new research methodologies. While behaviorism deliberately excluded mental states from its scientific purview, cognitive psychology placed them at the center of its investigation. This was not a mere theoretical difference but led to distinct research questions and methods.The key distinctions include:

• Focus on Internal Mental Processes: Unlike behaviorism’s exclusive focus on observable behavior, cognitive psychology investigates unobservable mental events such as perception, attention, memory, reasoning, and decision-making.
• Information Processing Approach: Cognitive psychology views the mind as an active processor of information, analogous to a computer system, which processes, transforms, and stores information.
• Experimental Methodology: While still employing rigorous experimental methods, cognitive psychologists developed new techniques to infer mental processes from observable behavior. This includes reaction time studies, memory recall and recognition tasks, and computational modeling.
• Interdisciplinary Nature: Cognitive psychology draws heavily from other disciplines, including computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and neuroscience, fostering a rich and multifaceted understanding of cognition.
• Rejection of Radical Behaviorism: Cognitive psychology directly challenged the behaviorist tenet that all behavior could be explained solely by environmental stimuli and reinforcement histories, arguing for the necessity of understanding internal cognitive mechanisms.

This paradigm shift represented a return to the study of the mind, albeit with a more scientific and systematic approach than earlier introspective methods. The development of precise experimental techniques allowed for the objective study of subjective experience and mental operations, bridging the gap between observable behavior and internal mental life.

Identifying the Pioneers of Cognitive Psychology

The emergence of cognitive psychology as a distinct field was not the work of a single individual but rather a confluence of ideas and research from various scholars. However, one figure stands out as the most widely recognized architect of this paradigm shift, a testament to his foundational theoretical contributions and his role in galvanizing the field.This section will delve into the contributions of this central figure, alongside other pivotal researchers whose work laid the groundwork for understanding the mind as an information processor.

Their collective efforts challenged prevailing behavioral perspectives and ushered in an era of scientific inquiry into internal mental processes.

The Central Figure: Ulric Neisser

Ulric Neisser is overwhelmingly credited as the founder of cognitive psychology, primarily due to his seminal 1967 book,Cognitive Psychology*. This work provided a comprehensive and systematic overview of the emerging field, synthesizing existing research and clearly articulating its core tenets. Neisser’s approach was characterized by a focus on how individuals perceive, learn, remember, and think. He emphasized the importance of studying these processes in ecologically valid settings, moving beyond purely laboratory-bound experiments.Neisser’s biographical details highlight a career dedicated to understanding human cognition.

Born in 1928, he received his Ph.D. from Harvard University under the supervision of the influential psychologist Wolfgang Köhler. His early work touched upon Gestalt psychology, which itself emphasized the holistic nature of perception and problem-solving, prefiguring some of cognitive psychology’s core ideas.

Cognitive Psychology* was revolutionary because it presented a unified framework for studying mental phenomena, defining cognitive psychology as the study of “how people learn, pay attention, remember, and use language.” This definition set the agenda for decades of research.

Other Influential Figures in Early Cognitive Psychology

While Neisser provided the defining synthesis, numerous other scholars contributed significantly to the intellectual climate that fostered cognitive psychology. Their diverse research areas and theoretical perspectives helped to build the foundation upon which Neisser’s work could flourish.These pioneers came from various disciplines, including psychology, linguistics, computer science, and philosophy, demonstrating the interdisciplinary nature of the cognitive revolution. Their individual contributions addressed different facets of mental processing, collectively pushing the boundaries of what was considered scientifically investigable.A brief overview of some of these key figures and their contributions includes:

• George Miller: A towering figure in early cognitive psychology, Miller is famous for his 1956 paper, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information.” This groundbreaking work quantified the limitations of short-term memory, suggesting that humans can typically hold around seven (plus or minus two) items in their working memory. This research was instrumental in establishing the concept of information processing capacity, a central theme in cognitive psychology.

• Jerome Bruner: Bruner’s work spanned developmental psychology, education, and cognition. His research on concept formation and the role of categorization in understanding the world provided crucial insights into how humans organize and make sense of information. His emphasis on “modes of representation” (enactive, iconic, and symbolic) also offered a framework for understanding cognitive development and learning.
• Noam Chomsky: While primarily a linguist, Chomsky’s critique of B.F. Skinner’s behaviorist explanation of language acquisition in 1959 was a pivotal moment that significantly challenged behaviorism and paved the way for cognitive approaches. Chomsky argued that language is not merely learned through stimulus-response mechanisms but involves an innate, biological capacity for grammar. This idea of internal mental structures and innate predispositions was a direct affront to behaviorism and a major impetus for cognitive psychology.

• Donald Broadbent: Broadbent’s 1958 book,
  -Perception and Communication*, introduced the concept of a “filter model” of attention. This model proposed that humans process information in stages and that a selective filter allows only certain information to pass through to higher levels of processing. This work was crucial in developing models of selective attention and the flow of information through the cognitive system.

• Herbert Simon and Allen Newell: These researchers, working in the nascent field of artificial intelligence, made significant contributions by developing computational models of human problem-solving. Their “General Problem Solver” (GPS) program, developed in the late 1950s, was designed to mimic human strategies for solving a wide range of problems. Their work demonstrated the feasibility of using computer simulations to understand cognitive processes and introduced the idea of the mind as an information-processing system analogous to a computer.

These individuals, along with many others, contributed to a paradigm shift that moved psychology from a focus on observable behavior to an exploration of the internal mental world, laying the essential groundwork for modern cognitive psychology.

Core Concepts and Early Research in Cognitive Psychology

The emergence of cognitive psychology marked a significant paradigm shift in the study of the human mind, moving away from the overt behaviors emphasized by behaviorism to an exploration of internal mental processes. This new field sought to understand how individuals perceive, learn, remember, think, and solve problems. Its foundational principles are rooted in the belief that mental states and processes are not only real but also scientifically investigable.At its core, cognitive psychology views the mind as an information-processing system, akin to a computer.

This analogy, while simplified, proved instrumental in developing theoretical models and experimental designs. Early researchers were driven by the conviction that understanding these internal mechanisms was crucial for a comprehensive understanding of human behavior. This introspective yet scientifically rigorous approach laid the groundwork for much of modern psychology.

Foundational Principles of Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology is built upon several key tenets that differentiate it from earlier psychological approaches. These principles guide the investigation of mental phenomena, focusing on the internal workings of the mind.

• Mental Processes are Central: The primary focus is on internal mental operations such as perception, attention, memory, language, and problem-solving. These are considered the driving forces behind observable behavior.
• The Mind as an Information Processor: A central metaphor likens the human mind to a complex information-processing system. Information is received, encoded, stored, retrieved, and manipulated through various cognitive stages.
• Scientific Investigation of Mental States: Despite the subjective nature of mental experiences, cognitive psychology employs empirical and experimental methods to objectively study these internal processes. This involves inferring mental states from observable behaviors and reaction times.
• Cognitive Architecture: Researchers aim to understand the underlying structure and organization of the mind, proposing models that represent how different cognitive functions interact and operate.

Early Experimental Methods in Cognitive Psychology

To study the intangible realm of mental processes, early cognitive psychologists developed innovative experimental paradigms. These methods, while perhaps less sophisticated than today’s, were groundbreaking in their ability to quantify and analyze cognitive functions.The overarching goal of these early experiments was to create controlled environments where specific mental operations could be isolated and measured. Researchers meticulously designed tasks that required participants to engage in particular cognitive processes, observing and recording their performance.

• Reaction Time Studies: Measuring the time it takes for individuals to respond to stimuli provided insights into the speed and efficiency of various mental processes. For instance, the seminal work by Donders on subtraction and addition tasks demonstrated how to use reaction time to infer the duration of different cognitive operations.
• Memory Span Tasks: Experiments like those by George Miller, investigating short-term memory capacity, involved presenting participants with lists of items (e.g., numbers or words) and testing their ability to recall them. This led to the famous “magical number seven, plus or minus two.”
• Decision-Making Paradigms: Early research explored how individuals make choices by presenting them with options and analyzing their selection processes. This often involved tasks requiring judgments, categorization, or problem-solving under varying conditions.
• Attention Tasks: Dichotic listening experiments, pioneered by Cherry and later expanded by Broadbent, involved presenting different auditory stimuli to each ear simultaneously and observing what information participants could selectively attend to and recall, providing insights into attentional mechanisms.

Comparison of Early Cognitive Research and Behaviorism

The rise of cognitive psychology was a direct reaction against the limitations of behaviorism, which had dominated psychology for decades. While behaviorism focused solely on observable stimuli and responses, cognitive psychology sought to understand the internal mental “black box” that behaviorists largely ignored.Behaviorism, with its emphasis on observable actions and environmental conditioning, provided a rigorous scientific framework for studying behavior.

However, it struggled to explain complex human phenomena like language acquisition, problem-solving, and creativity, which seemed to involve internal mental representations and transformations of information. Cognitive psychology directly addressed these gaps by positing the existence and importance of internal mental states and processes.

Aspect	Behaviorism	Early Cognitive Psychology
Primary Focus	Observable behavior (stimulus-response associations)	Internal mental processes (perception, memory, thinking)
View of the Mind	A “black box” to be ignored or considered irrelevant	An active information-processing system
Methodology	Observation of overt behavior, conditioning experiments	Experimental inference of mental processes through reaction times, memory tasks, etc.
Key Concepts	Conditioning (classical and operant), reinforcement, punishment	Information processing, memory stores, attention, schemas
Power	Effective for simple learning and habit formation	Better equipped to explain complex cognitive tasks, language, and problem-solving

The “Cognitive Revolution” and its Impact: Who Was The Founder Of Cognitive Psychology

The mid-20th century witnessed a profound paradigm shift in psychology, often termed the “Cognitive Revolution.” This intellectual movement fundamentally altered the direction of psychological inquiry, moving away from the dominance of behaviorism and re-emphasizing the study of internal mental processes. The revolution was not a single event but rather a series of converging developments in theory, methodology, and interdisciplinary thought that collectively redefined the landscape of psychology.This revolution marked a significant departure from the strict observational focus of behaviorism, which largely eschewed the study of the mind as a “black box.” Instead, cognitive psychology embraced the idea that mental states and processes—such as perception, memory, attention, language, and problem-solving—were legitimate and crucial subjects for scientific investigation.

This shift was driven by a confluence of factors, including dissatisfaction with behaviorism’s limitations, advancements in related fields like linguistics and computer science, and the development of new experimental techniques.

Pivotal Events and Publications of the Cognitive Revolution

The cognitive revolution was propelled by several seminal works and critical events that challenged existing psychological frameworks and introduced new theoretical perspectives. These contributions provided the foundational arguments and empirical evidence for the resurgence of mentalistic explanations in psychology.Key publications that catalyzed the revolution include:

• George Miller’s 1956 paper, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information,” which highlighted the finite capacity of human short-term memory and introduced quantitative methods for studying cognitive limitations.
• Jerome Bruner and colleagues’ 1956 book,
  -A Study of Thinking*, which explored concept formation and demonstrated how individuals actively process and organize information.
• Noam Chomsky’s 1959 review of B.F. Skinner’s
  -Verbal Behavior*, which critiqued behaviorist explanations of language acquisition and argued for the innate, rule-governed nature of linguistic competence.
• Ulric Neisser’s 1967 book,
  -Cognitive Psychology*, which is widely considered the definitive text of the movement, systematically outlining the core principles and research areas of the emerging field.

Beyond publications, pivotal events such as the 1956 symposium at MIT, often cited as a crucial gathering point for early cognitive scientists, also played a significant role in fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and solidifying the movement’s direction. The development of the digital computer during this era provided a powerful metaphor and a practical tool for understanding the mind as an information-processing system.

Shift in Psychological Inquiry: From Behaviorism to Cognitivism

The cognitive revolution fundamentally reoriented the focus of psychological research. Prior to this shift, behaviorism, with its emphasis on observable stimulus-response associations, had dominated the field. This led to a neglect of internal mental states, which were considered unscientific and unobservable. The cognitive revolution reasserted the importance of studying these internal processes, viewing the mind as an active agent that processes, stores, and manipulates information.The transition can be characterized by a move from explaining behavior solely through environmental inputs and learned responses to understanding the mediating role of cognitive processes.

This meant that psychological explanations began to incorporate concepts like mental representations, cognitive maps, schema, and internal models of the world.

Transition from Introspection to Information Processing Models

The early days of psychology, particularly with structuralism and functionalism, relied heavily on introspection—asking individuals to report on their conscious experiences. However, introspection proved to be subjective and unreliable, contributing to its decline with the rise of behaviorism. The cognitive revolution, while not reviving introspection in its original form, brought back the study of subjective experience through more objective and experimentally controlled methods.Consider the task of remembering a phone number.

An early, behaviorist approach might have focused on the stimuli (hearing the numbers) and the response (dialing the numbers), perhaps exploring the repetition or “rehearsal” of the numbers as a observable behavior.

However, a cognitive approach would delve deeper into the internal mechanisms:

The transition to information processing models conceptualizes this task differently. When a person hears a phone number, the information is first attended to and then encoded into short-term memory. To retain it, the individual might employ strategies like chunking (grouping digits) or mental rehearsal, which are internal processes. If the number needs to be remembered for longer, it is transferred to long-term memory through processes of consolidation and retrieval. The ability to recall the number depends on the efficiency of these encoding, storage, and retrieval processes, rather than simply observable repetitions.

This shift from a purely external, behavioral focus to an internal, mentalistic focus, using the computer as a guiding metaphor for how information is processed, was a hallmark of the cognitive revolution and remains central to contemporary cognitive psychology.

Legacy and Continued Influence of Cognitive Psychology’s Founders

The enduring impact of the pioneers of cognitive psychology is evident in its pervasive influence across numerous subfields of psychology and its integral role in the development of modern cognitive science. Their foundational work not only established a new paradigm for understanding the human mind but also provided the theoretical and methodological groundwork for subsequent research. The shift from behaviorism’s exclusive focus on observable behavior to an appreciation of internal mental processes, championed by these founders, fundamentally reshaped psychological inquiry.

This legacy is not static; it continues to inform and inspire new investigations into the complexities of cognition.The lasting impact of the founders’ work is multifaceted, influencing how we conceptualize, study, and apply knowledge about mental phenomena. Their insistence on rigorous empirical investigation, coupled with theoretical innovation, has led to advancements in our understanding of memory, attention, problem-solving, language, and decision-making.

This foundational research continues to be a touchstone for contemporary theories and empirical studies, demonstrating the robust and enduring nature of their contributions. The very language and conceptual frameworks used in cognitive psychology today are direct descendants of the ideas and research initiated by these early pioneers.

Enduring Impact on Contemporary Psychology

The foundational theories and research methodologies established by the founders of cognitive psychology have left an indelible mark on virtually every branch of contemporary psychology. Their emphasis on internal mental processes as legitimate subjects of scientific study liberated psychology from the constraints of pure behaviorism, paving the way for more nuanced and comprehensive explanations of human behavior. This paradigm shift has had a profound influence on clinical psychology, where cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a direct application of cognitive principles to understanding and treating mental health conditions.

In educational psychology, theories of learning and memory, rooted in early cognitive research, inform pedagogical strategies aimed at optimizing knowledge acquisition and retention. Developmental psychology has similarly benefited, with cognitive theories providing frameworks for understanding how children’s thinking and understanding of the world evolve over time. Even social psychology has incorporated cognitive perspectives, exploring how cognitive processes influence social perception, judgment, and interaction.

Key Research Areas Influenced by Early Cognitive Theories

The foundational concepts introduced by the pioneers of cognitive psychology continue to shape and guide research across a wide spectrum of cognitive domains. These early theories provided the initial frameworks and research questions that have evolved into sophisticated investigations in modern cognitive science. The principles laid out by figures like Neisser, Miller, and Broadbent, among others, remain central to understanding how the mind operates.The following research areas are particularly indebted to the early work in cognitive psychology:

• Memory Systems: Early models distinguishing between short-term and long-term memory, and later elaborations on different types of long-term memory (episodic, semantic, procedural), directly stem from the foundational work of Atkinson and Shiffrin and others. Current research on memory consolidation, retrieval processes, and false memories builds upon these initial distinctions.
• Attention and Perception: Theories of selective attention, such as Broadbent’s filter model and Treisman’s attenuation model, provided the initial conceptualizations of how individuals process vast amounts of sensory information. Contemporary research in attentional control, divided attention, and the interplay between attention and perception continues to refine and test these early ideas.
• Problem Solving and Decision Making: Newell and Simon’s work on problem-solving strategies, including heuristic approaches and means-end analysis, laid the groundwork for understanding how humans navigate complex challenges. Research on cognitive biases, heuristics, and rational decision-making in behavioral economics and psychology are direct continuations of this line of inquiry.
• Language Acquisition and Processing: While Chomsky’s work on generative grammar predates the formalization of cognitive psychology, his emphasis on innate linguistic structures and mental representations was highly influential. Subsequent cognitive research has explored the mental processes involved in language comprehension, production, and acquisition, building on these foundational ideas.
• Cognitive Development: Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development, though debated and refined, was a monumental contribution to understanding how children’s thinking changes. Cognitive psychology’s focus on mental structures and processes has informed contemporary research on theory of mind, executive functions in children, and the neural basis of cognitive development.

Relevance of Foundational Ideas in Modern Cognitive Science

The foundational ideas of cognitive psychology remain remarkably relevant in modern cognitive science, which represents an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the mind and intelligence. The emphasis on mental representations, information processing, and the computational nature of cognition, pioneered by early cognitive psychologists, is now a cornerstone of fields like artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and linguistics. For instance, the concept of mental models, an early cognitive construct, is now central to understanding how individuals build internal representations of the world to reason and predict outcomes, a concept vital in AI for creating intelligent agents.The early focus on modularity of mind, though debated, continues to inform neuroscientific research seeking to identify specific brain regions responsible for distinct cognitive functions.

Furthermore, the experimental methodologies developed by cognitive psychologists, such as reaction time measurements and accuracy analyses, are still standard tools for investigating cognitive processes. The enduring relevance is also seen in the application of cognitive principles to design user-friendly interfaces in technology, optimize learning environments, and develop more effective interventions for cognitive impairments. The initial conceptualizations of information processing have evolved into complex computational models that are tested against both human behavior and neural data, demonstrating a continuous and fruitful dialogue between the early theoretical insights and cutting-edge scientific inquiry.

Last Word

As we wrap up our exploration, it’s clear that the legacy of cognitive psychology’s founders is far-reaching and continues to shape our understanding of the mind today. Their foundational principles, born from a desire to move beyond mere observation, have opened up vast avenues of research and practical application. From artificial intelligence to educational strategies, the echoes of their early work are undeniable, proving that understanding how we think, learn, and remember remains a perpetually exciting and vital pursuit.

Question Bank

Who is most often credited as the founder of cognitive psychology?

While many contributed, Ulric Neisser is most widely recognized as the founder of cognitive psychology, particularly for his seminal 1967 book, “Cognitive Psychology.”

What was the historical context that led to cognitive psychology?

Cognitive psychology emerged in the mid-20th century as a reaction against the limitations of behaviorism, which largely ignored internal mental processes. Advances in computer science and linguistics also provided new models for understanding the mind.

What were some key intellectual shifts that paved the way for cognitive psychology?

Key shifts included the development of information processing theories, the rise of linguistics as a scientific discipline (especially Noam Chomsky’s work), and the computational metaphor, which viewed the mind as a kind of computer.

How did cognitive psychology differ from earlier psychological approaches like behaviorism?

Behaviorism focused exclusively on observable stimuli and responses, treating the mind as a “black box.” Cognitive psychology, in contrast, made the study of internal mental processes—such as memory, attention, and problem-solving—its central focus.

What are some core concepts of early cognitive psychology?

Core concepts include information processing, mental representations, attention, memory (short-term and long-term), perception, and problem-solving. The idea that the mind actively processes information was central.