Impact and aftermath of the cognitive revolution

By the early 1960s the relevance of the Skinnerian approach for understanding complex mental processes was seriously questioned. The linguist Noam Chomsky’s critical review of Skinner’s theory of “verbal behaviour” in 1959 showed that it could not properly account for human language acquisition. It was one of several triggers for a paradigm shift that by the mid-1960s became the “cognitive revolution,” which compellingly argued against behaviourism and led to the development of cognitive science. In conjunction with concurrent analyses and advances in areas from computer science and artificial intelligence to neuroscience, genetics, and applications of evolutionary theory, the scientific study of the mind and mental activity quickly became the foundation for much of the evolving new psychological science in the 21st century.

Psychological scientists demonstrated that organisms have innate dispositions and that human brains are distinctively prepared for diverse higher-level mental activities, from language acquisition to mathematics, as well as space perception, thinking, and memory. They also developed and tested diverse theoretical models for conceptualizing mental representations in complex information processing conducted at multiple levels of awareness. They asked such questions as: How does the individual’s stored knowledge give rise to the patterns or networks of mental representations activated at a particular time? How is memory organized? In a related direction, the analysis of visual perception took increasing account of how the features of the environment (e.g., the objects, places, and other animals in one’s world) provide information, the perception of which is vital for the organism’s survival. Consequently, information about the possibilities and dangers of the environment, on the one side, and the animal’s dispositions and adaptation efforts, on the other, become inseparable: their interactions become the focus of research and theory building.

Concurrently, to investigate personality, individual differences, and social behaviour, a number of theorists made learning theories both more social (interpersonal) and more cognitive. They moved far beyond the earlier conditioning and reward-and-punishment principles, focusing on how a person’s characteristics interact with situational opportunities and demands. Research demonstrated the importance of learning through observation from real and symbolic models, showing that it occurs spontaneously and cognitively without requiring any direct reinforcement. Likewise, studies of the development of self-control and the ability to delay gratification in young children showed that it is crucially important how the situation and the temptations are cognitively appraised: when the appraisal changes, so does the behaviour. Thus, the focus shifted from reinforcement and “stimulus control” to the mental mechanisms that enable self-control.

Traditional personality-trait taxonomies continued to describe individuals and types using such terms as introversion-extraversion and sociable-hostile, based on broad trait ratings. In new directions, consistent with developments in cognitive science and social psychology, individual differences were reconceptualized in terms of cognitive social variables, such as people’s constructs (encoding of information), personal goals and beliefs, and competencies and skills. Research examined the nature of the consistencies and variability that characterize individuals distinctively across situations and over time and began to identify how different types of individuals respond to different types of psychological situations. The often surprising findings led to new models of cognitive and affective information-processing systems.

In clinical applications, cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) was developed. CBT focuses on identifying and changing negative, inaccurate, or otherwise maladaptive beliefs and thought patterns through a combination of cognitive and behaviour therapy. It helps people to change how they think and feel about themselves and others. In time, these cognitive-behavioral treatment innovations, often supplemented with medications, were shown to be useful for treating diverse problems, including disabling fears, self-control difficulties, addictions, and depression.

In social psychology, beginning in the early 1970s, social cognition—how people process social information about other people and the self—became a major area of study. Research focused on such topics as the nature and functions of self-concepts and self-esteem; cultural differences in information processing; interpersonal relations and social communication; attitudes and social-influence processes; altruism, aggression, and obedience; motivation, emotion, planning, and self-regulation; and the influence of people’s dispositions and characteristics on their dealings with different types of situations and experiences. Recognizing that much information processing occurs at levels below awareness and proceeds automatically, research turned to the effects of subliminal (below awareness) stimuli on the activation of diverse kinds of mental representations, emotions, and social behaviours. Research at the intersection of social cognition and health psychology began to examine how people’s beliefs, positive illusions, expectations, and self-regulatory abilities may help them deal with diverse traumas and threats to their health and the stress that arises when trying to cope with diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cancer. Working with a variety of animal species, from mice and birds to higher mammals such as apes, researchers investigated social communication and diverse social behaviours, psychological characteristics, cognitive abilities, and emotions, searching for similarities and differences in comparison with humans.

In developmental psychology, investigators identified and analyzed with increasing precision the diverse perceptual, cognitive, and numerical abilities of infants and traced their developmental course, while others focused on life-span development and mental and behavioral changes in the aging process. Developmental research provided clear evidence that humans, rather than entering the world with a mental blank slate, are extensively prepared for all sorts of cognitive and skill development. At the same time, research also has yielded equally impressive evidence for the plasticity of the human brain and the possibilities for change in the course of development.