Cognitive Psychology
Aim of Cognitive Psychology
Beginning of the 1960s, a new approach within Psychology emerged from
the traditional field of Psychology to look at psychological phenomena
from a different angle. Focus of this approach was the human being and
its interaction with the environment. The interaction reflects the
continuous information flow between an organism and the environment.
Therefore, Cognitive Psychology is concerned with the processes that
mediate between the intake of information and behaviour. These
processes are characterized by the intake, processing and evaluation of
information, its encoding and storage as well as knowledge
retrieval.
Cognitive Psychology analyses the functional systems and structures
that information processing relies upon, the mechanisms behind them as
well as their interaction. Thereby, Cognitive Psychologists cooperate
with the Computer Sciences / AI (artificial intelligence) and the
neurosciences (neuropsychology, neuroanatomy, neurobiology,
neurophysiology) in order to come to a integrative model of the
functionality of the human mind. In so doing, individual differences
are also considered.