The Cognitive Revolution was a mid-20th-century shift in psychology that refocused the field on the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, memory, language, and problem solving. It emerged in response to the limits of strict behaviorism and was propelled by developments in linguistics, computer science, information theory, and neuroscience. This movement introduced the mind-as-information-processor metaphor, emphasized internal representations, and advanced rigorous experimental and computational methods. Its legacy underpins modern cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, with wide applications in education, clinical practice, AI, and human-computer interaction.
The history of psychology traces how questions about mind, behavior, and experience evolved from ancient philosophical inquiries to a modern empirical science. It spans early roots in philosophy and medicine, the founding of experimental laboratories, and major schools such as structuralism, functionalism, psychoanalysis, behaviorism, Gestalt, humanistic, and the cognitive revolution. Over time, psychology integrated rigorous methods, statistics, and ethics, while expanding to biological, cultural, and applied domains. Contemporary psychology emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, open science, and global perspectives.