History of Cognitive Development in Psychology

In this article we will discuss complete history of cognitive development in psychology. It is also called history of cognitive development theory.  Furthermore we will also discuss cognitive development in educational psychology or cognitive development in psychology of learning, and cognitive development in child and adolescence psychology.

Who is the Founder of Cognitive Psychology? or Who created Cognitive Psychology?

Mr. Ulric (Dick) Neisser was the father (founder) of cognitive psychology and an advocate for ecological approaches to cognitive research.

What is Cognition in Psychology?

The term cognitive/ cognition is derived from the generic term, it is usually used in the sense of knowing (to know). 

What is Cognitive Psychology? or What is the Definition of Cognitive Psychology?

Cognitive Psychology studies all the methods by which the individual perceives information, combines it and then uses it when needed.

Behaviorist experts have come to the conclusion that it is not enough to just study the mood and reaction, but also to study the inner mental actions of the individual.

Define Cognitive Development in Psychology | What is Cognitive Development in Psychology

According to different experts of psychology the cognitive development in psychology is as under:

Ernst R. Hillgard

According to Ernst, all mental functions are within cognition scope. These conditions involve the process of cognition as mental functions, including attention, memory, perceptions, information about language, evolutionary processes, problem solving, and intellectual responses. 

All psychiatrists know that mental functions do not come in the form of observable character, but the neural aspect can be involved.

Arthur L. Blumenthal

According to Arthur, two types of questions can be distinguished, one is the collection of information and the other is the nature of mental actions which is the source of learning. Psychologists relate to the character aspect or to the endeavors of cognitive performance in the actions of the individual.

Joseph R. Royce

Joseph R. Royce points out that the structure of Guilford intelligence model includes 28 rational elements. And the ways of knowing it set up a class of rational action.

History of Cognitive Development in Psychology

How did cognitive psychology develop - In 1960, behavior therapists tried to explain how to use operant and respondent conditioning/ passive moderation methods to successfully treat hysterical/ emotional and behavioral defects that have been successfully used on animals, children, and the insane.

Cognitive Development Examples

After testing this method with humans, experts concluded that no matter how powerful and effective tactics are used, it is difficult to change human character. 

For example, rewarding happy people and punishing depressed people will not cure depressed character. If the patient's rational action leads him to blame himself or call himself a failure, then sometimes any kind of persuasion or tactic cannot cure him.

According to modern theory, human cognition/ wisdom is an active process. The process of obtaining information analyzes the verbal process in such a way that the order in which information is presented to the brain, it changes according to the order of the brain. 

Each stage of the process, from cognition to action, has a specific mental process or verbal title.

Clinical Approach

In this section we will discus in short, the Piaget theory of cognitive development and Piaget's stages of cognitive development. 

Piaget, a psychiatrist/ cognitive psychologist, provided important information about children's thinking, their language, intelligence and ability to examine morals, and other mental characteristics. 

In his method he asked the questions from children individually about the world, this included standard cognitive work. 

For example, he would ask a child to arrange one-size-fits-all sticks, or to equalize the height of the water in a narrow-diameter and wide-diameter vessel.

Alexander Luria

In 1932, Alexander Luria conducted various experiments in the Soviet Union. He took mostly untrained people. These included people who had poor speech, or were mentally retarded. In later research, he explained how rational actions are connected to different parts of the brain.

Cognitive Abilities | Cognitive Skills in Psychology

Cognitive abilities or cognitive skills can also be taken as a whole in the human race. For example, the ability to learn a language or the qualities that make it unique. That is, each person has different cognitive abilities. Cognitive abilities can be taken at the group level, including verbal or reasoning ability. 

There is also a difference in the abilities that are found in the human race. For example, as children learn a language, there is a difference in quality, as every child learning the first words. 

Material analysis to test cognitive abilities is carried out through systematic tests, designed to measure those abilities, or with the help of clinical methods in which the performance of specific individuals is measured by indirect observation.

Tests of Cognitive Abilities | Tests for Cognitive Development in Psychology | Test for Child, Students and Adolescents for Cognitive Development in Psychology

In 1890, James Mckeen Cattle founded the mental test. But before that, Francis Galton devised simple mental tests. Cettle gave tests to American students, which included tests such as mental response time, sensory discrimination, and syllable words. 

Towards the end of the century, Alfred Binet devised more complex mental tests, such as the ability to memorize prose or solve simple reasoning problems, which can be used to test a child or to identify mentally paralyzed children. 

At the beginning of the twentieth century, British Psychologists, led by Charles Spearman, developed a number of mental tests that could be given to both children and adults.

By the Lewis M. Terman in 1916, mental tests were accelerated in the United States. He adopted the tests of Alfred Binet, which became known as the Stanford-Binet Tests. 

Also these tests were used during recruitment in World War I, and all of Binet and Terman's military tests became intelligence tests.