Sunday, June 9, 2013
Which milestone in the development of cognitive psychology do you feel has had the most impact on the field? Why
I believe the development of the information processing model had the most impact on the field. Information processing was bound to the human mind by a metaphor, which served as a powerful force in cognitive psychology, and became a composite of characteristics shared by humans and machines. Information processing is the means by which individuals take in, use, store, and process information. The information processing model is an approach to studying the human mind, which is characterized by three assumptions. Humans are similar as computers as both are processors of information, which this processing of information supports behavior and human thought . Willingham (2007), "representations (of objects and events) and processes that operate on these representations underlie information processing" (p. 28). In largely isolated modules that are organized in processing stages information processing normally occurs (Willingham, 2007). Basically information is absorbed from the environment transformed then it is emitted as more information. I consider the information processing model a milestone in the development of cognitive psychology because it provides a framework to describe and explain mental processes.
Willingham, D. T. (2007). Cognition: The thinking animal (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.