cognitive psychology

n. This term describes a subdiscipline of psychology that examines mental processes involved in perception (both visual and auditory), reasoning and problem solving, language processing, memory, and the processing of various types of information. This field developed from the earlier Gestalt school of psychology pioneered by Max Wertheimer; the work of Jean Piaget, who examined cognitive development in children; and the writings of Noam Chomsky, who initiated the movement toward the study of language in terms of mental processes. Cognitive psychologists seek to understand the mental representations and structures that lead individuals to comprehend, define, and develop knowledge. In the area of memory, researchers seek to understand how information is encoded, stored, and retrieved in the mind. Two main aims in cognitive psychology are, first, to provide a theoretical description of the mind (mental structures or abstract representations, and processes) and, second, to provide experimental and quantitative evidence regarding mental functioning.

- JA