The branch of psychology that studies the processes and mechanisms underlying all forms of cognition, mainly by experimental methods. To begin with, it was based on testing information-processing models of cognitive functioning, but in recent years these models have been challenged by dynamical systems approaches and the theory of embodiment. The term appeared for the first time in Ulric Neisser‘s book Cognitive psychology (1968), but its birth was probably witnessed at the Hixon symposium (1948) and facilitated by the theorising of Donald Broadbent (1926-1993) in his book Perception and communication (1958), as well as by Plans and the structure of behaviour (1960) written by George A. Millar, Eugene Galanter and Karl A. Pribram.
See Cognition, Cognitive immaturity hypothesis, Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science, Dynamical systems approaches, Embodiment, Hixon symposium, Information, Information-processing theories, Mechanism, Neuropsychology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Two visual systems hypothesis