Cognitive Psychology Definition

Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper

Michelle Newland

PSY360

January 31, 2011

Devlin Crose

Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper

Cognitive psychology is the part of psychology that valued the “mental processes including how people think, perceive, and learn” (Van Wagner, 20069). It is possibly used the most when evaluating patients for various mental disorders and diseases. Cognitive psychology principles have been influential in discovering new mental diseases, which in turn has led to improved care in general. The ideologies that grew from the founding of cognitive psychology have greatly affected how people around the world think about the psychological processes of the human mind today.

Early Greek philosophers, such as Plato, were credited with forming the foundation for what we now know as cognitive psychology (Anderson, 2005). Plato described his rationalism of how reality should be seen, stating “reality resides not in the concrete objects we perceive but in the abstract forms that these objects represent” (University of Arizona, 2008). Plato was of the belief that the way to knowledge could only be found in logical analysis. Plato was followed by Aristotle who believed in the same way as Plato. Both Plato and Aristotle believed that reality is only in the tangible world of objects that our body can actually sense (University of Arizona, 2008). Aristotle also believed that knowledge could be gained through both observation as well as experience.

The Greek philosophers may have laid the initial foundation for cognitive psychology but other philosophers soon began to focus on the way the mind processes information and how the mind perceives information. One such philosopher was Rene Descartes. Rene Descartes contributed to the development of cognitive psychology via his values of dualism and ideas on rationalism. Descartes’ research on optics, mathematics, mechanics, and meteors are where he came up with his ideas (University of Arizona,...