Then, computer science came with comparisons between human thought and computer functions.įinally, when Noam Chomsky critiqued behaviorism, he suggested cognitive psychology as a better way to approach the study of the mind. First, soldiers needed to be trained to use the new war technology that came after WWII. However, several factors made the study of thought increasingly important. With these introductions of thought into the scientific realm, cognitive psychology made sense as a new form of scientific study.įrom the 1920s to the 1950s, behaviorism was the predominant theory of psychology. In the 1800s, Paul Broca discovered the area of the brain where language is produced, and Carl Wernicke discovered the area of the brain where language is comprehended. As a field of psychology, cognitive psychology is a much more modern branch of study. In the writings of the Ancient Greeks, there are many discussions about thinking. People have been thinking about the ways thought influences behavior for millennia.
Maybe you think you’ll be more comfortable if you wrap up a bit. Between the feeling of coldness and the behavior of putting on a scarf is a thought process. Or, they can happen without a sensory stimulus.Īn example of sensory stimuli leading to behavior via a thought process might happen if you step outside on a winter day and feel the cold wind on your face. Cognitions, or thought processes, are what happens to you between perceiving something with your senses and behaving outwardly in response.