The establishment of cognitive psychology as a subject of learning in the mid-20th century was driven by a major shift away from the dominant paradigm of the time—behaviorism—and toward a renewed interest in how the mind actively processes information.
Here’s what led to its rise:
1. Reaction Against Behaviorism (1920s–1950s)
What Behaviorism Believed:
- Founded by John B. Watson and advanced by B.F. Skinner, behaviorism dominated American psychology.
- It held that psychology should focus only on observable behavior, not internal mental states (which were seen as unmeasurable and unscientific).
- Mental processes like thinking, memory, and reasoning were ignored or considered “black boxes.”
What Changed:
- By the 1950s, limitations of behaviorism became clear.
- It couldn’t explain language acquisition (as shown by Noam Chomsky’s critique of Skinner).
- It struggled to explain problem-solving, planning, creativity, and attention.
The Behaviorism theory emerged in the early 20th century as a radical break from introspective psychology, which had dominated the field in the late 1800s. It was a direct response to the unscientific nature of prior psychological approaches that relied heavily on subjective introspection (people describing their own mental states).
Why Behaviorism Was Created: The Scientific Crisis in Early Psychology
1. Reaction Against Introspection and Mentalism
- In the late 1800s and early 1900s, psychology was still closely tied to philosophy and heavily relied on introspection — people looking inward and describing their thoughts, feelings, sensations.
- Thinkers like Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener tried to make this rigorous, but the method was deeply subjective, unreliable, and non-replicable.
- Different people gave different reports, and results couldn’t be verified or standardized.
Behaviorists asked: How can psychology be a science if it depends on unverifiable inner experiences?
The Rise of Behaviorism: A Push for Objectivity
John B. Watson (1913): “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”
- Often seen as the founder of behaviorism.
- Called for psychology to become a natural science of behavior, rejecting consciousness and introspection altogether.
- Insisted that psychologists should study observable behavior only, using controlled experiments.
“Give me a dozen healthy infants… I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist — doctor, lawyer, artist — regardless of his talents, penchants, or ancestry.” — Watson
Ivan Pavlov (early 1900s): Classical Conditioning
- Though a physiologist, Pavlov’s work on stimulus-response learning (e.g., dogs salivating at the sound of a bell) became central to behaviorism.
B.F. Skinner (1930s–50s): Radical Behaviorism
- Developed operant conditioning — behavior is shaped by reinforcement and punishment.
- Believed that even complex human behavior could be explained without reference to thoughts or feelings.
3. What Behaviorism Offered
- Scientific rigor: Focused only on what could be observed, measured, and predicted.
- Control and prediction: Believed that if we understand environmental stimuli, we can shape behavior.
- Simplicity and clarity: Removed ambiguity around “mind,” “will,” or “consciousness.”
4. Its Blind Spots: What It Ignored
| What It Rejected | Why That Became a Problem |
|---|---|
| Internal mental states | Couldn’t explain reasoning, memory, creativity, or understanding |
| Subjective experience | Ignored the richness of human consciousness |
| Language and meaning | Failed to explain how children learn grammar without reinforcement (Chomsky’s critique) |
| Individual agency | Reduced humans to passive responders to stimuli |
Summary: What Was Behaviorism Responding To?
| Force | Description |
|---|---|
| 🧠 Subjective introspection | Psychology’s earlier methods were unscientific and varied from person to person |
| 🔬 Desire for scientific legitimacy | Psychology wanted to align with physics and biology as a measurable science |
| 🧪 Success of animal experiments | Learning laws (e.g. from rats and pigeons) were seen as generalizable to humans |
| 🗣️ Frustration with vague mental terms | “Mind,” “will,” or “consciousness” were viewed as metaphysical, not empirical |
Legacy
While behaviorism eventually lost dominance (with the cognitive revolution of the 1950s–70s), it laid the groundwork for:
- Rigorous experimental psychology
- Learning theory and behavioral conditioning
- Foundations for behavior modification, education, and even parts of organizational training
Would you like a timeline comparing Introspective Psychology → Behaviorism → Cognitive Psychology → Organizational Learning as part of your article series?
2. The Cognitive Revolution (1950s–1960s)
This was a turning point in the history of psychology. A new group of scientists began to ask:
What is happening in the mind between stimulus and response?
Key Catalysts:
- World War II: Pilots and radar operators required training in attention, decision-making, and reaction time — behaviors that couldn’t be explained just by stimulus-response.
- Information Theory: Concepts like coding, storage, transmission, and feedback (from computer science and telecommunications) offered metaphors for how the mind might work.
- Rise of Computers: The brain was likened to a computer that processes, stores, and retrieves information — leading to a model of the mind as an information processor.
3. Foundational Figures and Concepts
George Miller (1956):
- Published “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two”, which showed that human short-term memory has limited capacity.
- Demonstrated internal cognitive limits — something behaviorism ignored.
Ulric Neisser (1967):
- Wrote Cognitive Psychology, the first textbook using that term.
- Defined the field as the study of how people acquire, store, transform, and use knowledge.
Noam Chomsky (1959):
- Critiqued Skinner’s behaviorist view of language.
- Argued that humans have innate structures (a mental model) for language learning.
Donald Broadbent (1958):
- Developed models of attention and information filtering — foundational in understanding how we process overwhelming input.
4. Core Assumptions of Cognitive Psychology
- The mind actively constructs knowledge (it doesn’t just react to stimuli).
- Mental processes can be studied scientifically through careful experimentation.
- Humans have internal representations of the world — mental models, schemas, etc.
Summary: Why Did Cognitive Psychology Emerge?
| Factor | Description |
|---|---|
| Limits of Behaviorism | Couldn’t explain complex human thought and internal processes |
| War and Technology | Practical needs for understanding human decision-making and attention |
| Computers & Information Theory | Gave a metaphor and framework for modeling the mind |
| New Scientific Methods | Experiments on memory, language, and problem-solving made the mind measurable |
Cognitive psychology laid the scientific foundation for later fields like cognitive neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and — relevant to your interest — the modern understanding of mental models in decision-making and learning.
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