Introduction to Psychology
Fields

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Cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology studies mental processes such as perception, attention, problem solving and remembering, mainly through experiments with human participants.

Core subfieldBrain and cognition

Type of entry
Core subfieldA long-standing main area of research in psychology. Types are editorial labels, not an official classification.
Cluster
Brain and cognitionMind, brain, perception, language, emotion and animal behavior.
Sources opened
2 of 20 read as a full page, 2 as selected text or an abstract, 0 not verified.
Independent review
Admitted after correctionsClaude Code reviewer agent, separate from the writer, 2026-10-21. 7 claims checked against 2 sources opened by the reviewer.

What it studies

Cognitive psychology studies mental processes such as perception, pattern recognition, attention, problem solving and remembering. Its experiments have examined deductive reasoning, concept formation, mental imagery and analogical problem solving. It is one contributor to cognitive science, which one encyclopedia entry defines as the interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence, including philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics and anthropology.

History and people

Especially in North America, behaviorism dominated psychology through the 1950s, and talk of consciousness and mental representations was set aside. Around 1956, George Miller summarized limits on human thinking capacity and proposed recoding information into chunks. In 1967 Ulric Neisser published Cognitive Psychology, which brought together research on perception, attention, problem solving and remembering. An APS memorial includes a remembrance by Alan Baddeley saying that the book named the field.

People and documented roles

  • Ulric Neisser. Author of the 1967 book Cognitive Psychology
    • Published Cognitive Psychology, a book that brought together research on several areas of cognition. [1]
    • Published Cognition and Reality, a turn toward ecological approaches. [1]
  • George A. Miller. Psychologist who summarized limits on human thinking capacity
    • Summarized studies of limited thinking capacity and proposed recoding information into chunks. [2]

The sources list further names (for example Alan Baddeley as a commentator and Oliver Selfridge as a collaborator) but document no contribution to the field beyond commentary, so they are not listed. Women and scholars outside Europe and the United States are not documented in the sources opened.

Dated milestones

  • Around 1956Research report. Approximate.Miller summarized evidence on limited thinking capacity; the source gives only 'around 1956'. [2]
  • 1967Publication. Year.Neisser published the book Cognitive Psychology. [1]
  • 1976Publication. Year.Neisser published Cognition and Reality. [1]

Methods

The primary method is experimentation with human participants, often combined with theorizing and computational modeling. These experiments probe topics such as reasoning, concept formation, mental imagery and problem solving, where the encyclopedia entry says conclusions about how the mind works must be based on more than common sense and introspection.

Training and applications

The sources opened for this profile do not document training routes, credentials or practice settings for cognitive psychology, so none are described here. Readers looking for related research may start with the neighboring entries on cognitive neuroscience and on sensation and perception.

Boundaries and limits

The sources describe a synthesis and a naming episode, not a single origin. Cognitive psychology overlaps with cognitive science, which has its own organizational history. The APS memorial is an institutional account, and this guide has not checked it against the 1967 book. Neisser's 1976 book Cognition and Reality, a turn toward ecological approaches, received a generally negative reception according to a commentator quoted there.

Evidence behind the claims

  • Neisser's 1967 book Cognitive Psychology brought together research on perception, pattern recognition, attention, problem solving and remembering.

    History and peopleDocumented in the sourceSource: [1]Where: Section on the book Cognitive Psychology (1967)

  • The APS memorial includes a remembrance by Alan Baddeley saying that the 1967 book Cognitive Psychology named the field.

    History and peopleDocumented in the sourceSource: [1]Where: Baddeley remembrance in the article body

  • Around 1956, George Miller summarized studies showing that human thinking has limited capacity, with short-term memory limited to about seven items, and proposed recoding information into chunks.

    History and peopleDocumented in the sourceSource: [2]Where: History section, paragraph beginning 'Around 1956'

  • Especially in North America, behaviorism dominated psychology through the 1950s, and talk of consciousness and mental representations was banished from respectable scientific discussion.

    History and peopleDocumented in the sourceSource: [2]Where: Introduction and history section

  • The entry says the primary method of cognitive psychology is experimentation with human participants, often combined with theorizing and computational modeling, on topics including deductive reasoning, concept formation, mental imagery and analogical problem solving.

    MethodsDocumented in the sourceSource: [2]Where: Methods section on psychology

  • The entry defines cognitive science as the interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence, embracing philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics and anthropology.

    What it studiesThe organization's own descriptionSource: [2]Where: Introduction, first paragraph

  • Neisser's 1976 book Cognition and Reality, written after a turn toward ecological approaches, received a generally negative reception according to Cutting as reported in the memorial.

    Boundaries and limitsDocumented in the sourceSource: [1]Where: Section on Neisser's later career

Where it appears

University examples

Professional contexts

Examples show documented structures. They are not a ranking, a census, or a statement about admission or licensing.

In the Psy101 course

This is course relevance only. It is not evidence for the historical or practice claims on this page.See the full course map.

Sources and inspection

2 of 2 sources were opened and read at the level shown. A source marked as not verified supports no claim on this page by itself.

  1. [1]
    Remembering the Father of Cognitive PsychologyAssociation for Psychological Science (APS Observer), 2012. Professional association. Supports the history.Selected text readRead an extract of the memorial, filed under the May/June 2012 issue, covering the 1967 book, its reception, Neisser's later work and the remembrances; the commentators' original texts were not read.
  2. [2]
    Cognitive ScienceStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (author Paul Thagard), 2023. Reference work. Supports the definition of the area.Selected text readRead an extract covering the introduction, the history around 1956, the role of cognitive psychology and the methods section; the page shows a substantive revision of January 31, 2023, and the sections on theories and applications were not read.

Independent source review: Claude Code reviewer agent, separate from the writer, 2026-10-21. Verdict: Admitted after corrections. Of 7 claims checked, 5 were supported as written, 2 were reworded and 0 were removed.