Cognitive revolution
What was the cognitive revolution?
How does cognitive psychology differ from behaviorism?
Who contributed to the understanding of information processing in cognitive psychology?
What role did Noam Chomsky play in the cognitive revolution?
What was Ulric Neisser’s contribution to cognitive psychology?
Cognitive revolution, shift in psychology in the mid-20th century that renewed scientific interest in studying internal mental processes, including memory, attention, language, perception, reasoning, and problem-solving. Rather than explaining behavior solely in terms of observable stimuli and responses, cognitive psychologists investigated ways in which individuals acquire, organize, store, and use information. The movement helped establish cognitive psychology and contributed to the emergence of the interdisciplinary field of cognitive science.
From behaviorism to cognition
During much of the first half of the 20th century, behaviorism strongly influenced American psychology. Behaviorists emphasized observable behavior, which could be measured experimentally, and generally avoided using imperceptible internal mental states to explain behavior. Their research produced important discoveries about learning and conditioning.
Some psychologists, however, questioned whether behavior alone could adequately explain complex abilities such as remembering information, understanding language, solving unfamiliar problems, and making decisions. By the 1950s researchers began developing experimental methods for investigating these internal processes scientifically. Instead of treating the mind as inaccessible, they inferred how it worked from measurable behavior—for example, how accurately someone remembered information or how long it took to make a decision.
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Information handling and language
An influential development came from psychologist George A. Miller, who in 1956 described limits on how much information people could hold in immediate memory and discussed chunking, in which separate pieces of information are organized into meaningful units. Such research suggested that understanding behavior required studying how information was represented and processed mentally. The following rise of the digital computer supplied another powerful analogy. Researchers began asking whether aspects of human thinking could be understood in terms of information processing, whereby information enters a system, undergoes transformation, is stored, and contributes to an output. Notably, in the 1950s and 1960s, computer scientist Allen Newell and social scientists Cliff Shaw and Herbert A. Simon described programs designed to imitate aspects of human reasoning and problem-solving. These efforts helped connect psychology with the emerging field of artificial intelligence.
Language provided another challenge. Theoretical linguist Noam Chomsky argued that language could not be adequately explained simply as a collection of behaviors learned through reinforcement. Humans can understand and produce sentences they have never previously encountered, suggesting that language depends on internal systems for representing and applying grammatical rules. Chomsky’s influential criticism of behaviorist explanations of language helped turn scientific attention toward the mental processes underlying language acquisition and use.
A new science of the mind
By the 1960s cognitive approaches were becoming increasingly prominent. Psychologist Ulric Neisser helped define the developing field with his 1967 book, Cognitive Psychology, which brought together research on mental processes involving perception, attention, memory, and thought. Researchers in linguistics, computer science, philosophy, neuroscience, and anthropology began addressing related questions about how minds represent and process information. Subsequent advances in these fields strengthened the foundation of cognitive science.
The cognitive revolution did not establish a single theory of how the mind works, nor did behaviorism disappear. Instead, it broadened what psychologists considered open to scientific investigation. Mental processes could be studied experimentally—as long as theories about them produced measurable predictions. Modern research combining cognition, behavior, and brain activity continues that legacy.
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