A basic view of cognitive psychology is that computers can be used to simulate people's internal psychological processes. The computer accepts the symbol input, encodes it, makes a decision on the encoded input, stores it and gives the symbol output. This can be compared with how people receive information, how to encode memory, how to make decisions, how to transform internal cognitive state, and how to compile this state into behavioral output. This analogy between computer and cognitive process is only a horizontal analogy, that is, describing the internal psychological process at the computer program level mainly involves the logical ability of people and computers, rather than the analogy between computer hardware and human brain.
The rise of cognitive psychology is a major change in the development of western psychology. Some people say it is a new school, others say it is a new direction, and more people agree with Kuhn's point of view as a new "paradigm". Kuhn called the replacement of old and new paradigms in science scientific revolution. It is in this sense that some American psychologists believe that the emergence of cognitive psychology is the second revolution in the development of American psychology. The first revolution was the rise of behaviorism.
The emergence of cognitive psychology shows that American psychologists have changed their views on basic issues such as the objects and methods of psychology. Behaviorism has dominated American psychology for forty years, and its influence is deeply rooted, while cognitive psychology opposes the basic viewpoint of behaviorism.
On the research object of psychology, behaviorism advocates the study of explicit and observable behavior, regardless of the internal psychological process; Cognitive psychology has shifted the research focus to the internal psychological process. In terms of research methods, behaviorism emphasizes strict laboratory methods and excludes all reports of subjective experience; Cognitive psychology attaches importance to laboratory experiments and reports of subjective experience. For cognitive psychologists, changing external conditions is not an end, but an auxiliary means to reveal the knowledge structure.
Cognitive psychology tries to unify all cognitive processes. It holds that cognitive phenomena such as attention, perception, memory and thinking are intertwined, and understanding one group of phenomena helps to explain another. Because of their interdependence, it is possible to find a unified processing model of human cognitive process.
Cognitive psychology should not only unify the cognitive process, but also unify all fields of general psychology, that is, to study and explain emotions, motives, personality and other aspects from a cognitive point of view. The viewpoint of cognitive psychology is further extended to social psychology, developmental psychology, physiological psychology, engineering psychology and other fields.
Cognitive psychology attaches importance to the comprehensive viewpoint in psychological research, and emphasizes the interrelation and mutual restriction among various psychological processes, which is helpful to expand psychological research methods in the study of specific problems. The research results of cognitive psychology also contribute to the development of computer science.