Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Life Sciences - Cognitive Psychology

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.