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Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper Introduction Cognitive Psychology/PSY360 Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes surrounding learning, memory, perception, and thought. Though it is still a relatively new formal branch of psychology, its roots extend back to Descartes who sought a way to explain how the mind worked, proposing the analogy of a “hydraulic system of nerve function” (Willingham, 2007, p. 26) after he observed animated statues in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. It has been the restless pursuit of not only the idea of how the mind works but also what exactly constituted the mind that eventually led to the foundations of cognitive theory. As psychologists examined how …show more content…

The whole of an individual’s behavior is found neither by observation only or an examination of one’s thoughts only, but a combination of the two. The observance of behavior affords cognitive psychologists the ability to test and evaluate theories about behaviors and the hypotheses developed from them. Self-reporting can present errors that can be confirmed or rejected through the use of behavioral observation tested using empirical means. Additionally, cognitive psychologists cannot personally observe and measure internal mental processes but in utilizing behavioral observation, the cognitive psychologist can arrive at logical conclusions of the existence of the behavior based on the observation of the behavior. In using the accepted standard of behavioral procedures, cognitive psychologists are able to examine the cognitive processes thought to be the source without inferring unproven causes (Zentall, 2002). This removes much of the subjectivity that initially made the cognitive perspective suspect. Cognitive psychology developed the framework to test theories and further explain behavior using behavioral observation. Using the scientific method, the theory predicts the behavior to be expected if the said theory is provable. There are several steps to take in order to this. First, develop alternative theories by having at least two possibilities to select from when

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