Cognitive psychology concerns both language and
thought and has been popular only since the 1950s. Before that, many psychologists
believed that the scientific method could not be applied toward study of a process as
private as thinking. From ancient Greek times, only philosophers and metaphysicians
studied the nature of language and thought. The metaphysician René Descartes, for
example, famously argued, “I think, therefore I am.”
Today, thanks to increasingly sophisticated tools
for studying brain activity, cognitive psychology is a thriving science. Cognitive
psychologists explore such questions as how language affects thought, whether it is
possible to create a “thinking” machine, and why humans are motivated to create
art.
