COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

Introduction

Most readers will already know that cognitive theory came into its own as an extension of (some would say a replacement of) behavioral theory. However, many of the tenets of cognitive theory are not new and date back to the very beginnings of the autonomous discipline of psychology in the 19th century. We therefore begin with a brief discussion of introspection and of Gestalt theory before turning to the story of cognitive psychology's reaction to behaviorism.

Gestalt Psychology

The word Gestalt is a German noun that has two meanings: besides the connotation of “shape” or “form” as a property of things, it has the meaning of a concrete individual and characteristic entity, existing as something detached and having a shape or form as one of its attributes. Following this tradition, in Gestalt theory, the word Gestalt means any segregated whole (Hartman, 1935). Thus, Gestalt psychology is the study of how people see and understand the relation of the whole to the parts that make up that whole.

Although the major features of this “new” psychology were developed by Wertheimer, his two protégés, Kohler and Koffka, were responsible for the wide dissemination of this school of thought. This spread was assisted by the rise in Germany of the Nazi party in 1933. Hitler expelled Wertheimer, Levin, von Hornbostel, Stern, Werner, and other Gestalt scholars, ensuring the spread of the concept. Koffka was appointed a research professor at Smith College, and Kohler would soon be at Harvard. Both had been giving lecture tours explaining the principles and concepts of this new school. One of the best illustrations of the whole being different from the sum of the parts is provided by Ehrenfels in a musical example. If a melody is played on an instrument, it is recognizable. If the melody is played again, but this time in another key, it is still recognizable. However, if the same notes, in the same key, were played in a different sequence, the listener will not recognize any similarity between the first and the second melody.

The central tenet of Gestalt theory—that our perception and understanding of objects and events in the world depends on the appearance and actions of whole objects, not of their individual parts — has had some influence on the evolution of research in educational technology. The key to that influence are the well-known Gestalt laws of perceptual organization, codified by Boring, (1950). These include the principles of “good figure,” “figure-ground separation,” and “continuity.” These laws formed the basis for a considerable number of message design principles (Fleming & Levie, 1978), in which Gestalt theory about how we perceive and organize information that we see is used in prescriptive recommendations about how to present information on the page, or screen. A similar approach to what we hear is taken by Hereford and Winn (1994).

The Rise of Cognitive Psychology

Behavioral theory is described in detail elsewhere in this handbook. Suffice it to say that behaviorism embodies two of the key principles of positivism: that our knowledge ...