Last reviewed on September 26, 2026.
The cognitive revolution of the mid‑20th century fundamentally transformed psychology and laid the foundation for cognitive science. It marked a departure from behaviourism’s focus on observable behaviour and a return to studying the mind as an information‑processing system. This article traces the origins, catalysts and consequences of this intellectual upheaval.
Key facts
- What: a shift in psychology, starting in the 1950s, away from behaviourism and toward the scientific study of the mind.
- Main focus: the cognitive revolution created an impetus for psychologists to focus their attention on better understanding the mind and mental processes — memory, attention, perception, language, problem solving and reasoning — treated as information processing.
- Key figures: Noam Chomsky, George Miller, Jerome Bruner, Allen Newell, Herbert Simon, Ulric Neisser.
- Symbolic starting point: the MIT Symposium on Information Theory, September 1956.
- Legacy: cognitive psychology and the interdisciplinary field of cognitive science.
Pre‑Revolution Psychology
In the early 20th century, behaviourism dominated American psychology. Pioneered by John B. Watson and later popularised by B. F. Skinner, behaviourism asserted that psychology should restrict itself to observable stimuli and responses, rejecting mental entities like thoughts and intentions as unscientific. While behaviourism produced valuable insights and rigorous methods, it struggled to explain phenomena such as language learning, problem solving and mental imagery.
Seeds of Change
Several developments across disciplines sowed the seeds of the cognitive revolution:
- Cybernetics and Information Theory: In the 1940s, researchers like Norbert Wiener and Claude Shannon developed theories of feedback, control and information. Their work suggested that systems (including minds and machines) could be understood as information processors.
- Advances in Computing: The invention of digital computers and algorithms by Alan Turing, John von Neumann and others provided both a metaphor for the mind and tools for modelling cognition.
- Linguistics: Noam Chomsky’s 1959 review of Skinner’s book Verbal Behavior (1957) argued that behaviourism could not explain the rapid acquisition of language by children. Chomsky proposed that humans possess an innate universal grammar.
- Early AI: Researchers such as Allen Newell and Herbert Simon built computer programs (e.g., the Logic Theorist, General Problem Solver) that performed tasks like theorem proving, demonstrating that complex problem solving could be mechanised.
- Cognitive Psychology: Experiments by George Miller (short‑term memory limits), Donald Broadbent (attention), Jerome Bruner (concept formation) and Ulric Neisser (pattern recognition) revived interest in mental processes. Neisser’s 1967 book Cognitive Psychology synthesised these findings and helped define the field.
The Rise of Cognitive Science
As psychologists embraced mental representations and information‑processing models, scholars from other fields joined forces. Computer scientists working on artificial intelligence, linguists exploring grammar, philosophers analysing mind and language, and anthropologists studying culture formed an interdisciplinary community. The term cognitive science was coined by Christopher Longuet‑Higgins in 1973. In 1979, the Cognitive Science Society held its first conference, signalling the formal emergence of the field.
Cognitive Revolution Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1948 | Hixon Symposium: Karl Lashley's paper on serial order challenges stimulus–response chains. Norbert Wiener publishes Cybernetics; Claude Shannon publishes his theory of information. |
| 1956 | MIT Symposium on Information Theory (Newell & Simon's Logic Theory Machine, Chomsky on grammar, Miller on memory). Miller's “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two”. The Dartmouth workshop names “artificial intelligence”. Bruner, Goodnow & Austin's A Study of Thinking. |
| 1957 | Chomsky's Syntactic Structures; Skinner's Verbal Behavior. |
| 1958 | Broadbent's Perception and Communication models attention as a filter. |
| 1959 | Chomsky's review of Verbal Behavior argues behaviourism cannot explain language. |
| 1960 | Miller, Galanter & Pribram's Plans and the Structure of Behavior; Bruner and Miller found the Harvard Center for Cognitive Studies. |
| 1967 | Neisser's Cognitive Psychology names and defines the new field. |
| 1973 | Christopher Longuet-Higgins uses the term “cognitive science”. |
| 1977–1979 | The journal Cognitive Science launches; the Cognitive Science Society holds its first conference. |
Impact and Legacy
The cognitive revolution had profound effects:
- It reintroduced mental constructs (e.g., memory, attention, representation) into scientific discourse.
- It fostered computational modeling as a method for testing theories of mind.
- It inspired research on artificial intelligence, leading to practical applications like expert systems and natural language processing.
- It encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration, giving rise to departments, journals and conferences dedicated to cognitive science.
While the revolution was not a sudden overthrow but a gradual shift, its impact endures. Behaviourist methods remain valuable, but cognitive science dominates contemporary psychology and neuroscience. Debates continue over the relative merits of symbolic and connectionist approaches, the role of embodiment and the integration of biology and computation.
Continuing the Revolution
Today, cognitive science is evolving again. Advances in deep learning, neuroimaging, genetic sequencing and big data are expanding our understanding of cognition. Emerging paradigms like predictive processing, extended mind theories and embodied cognition challenge traditional assumptions. As we build on the cognitive revolution’s legacy, we move closer to a unified science of mind and intelligence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the cognitive revolution?
The cognitive revolution was the movement, beginning in the 1950s, that brought the mind back into scientific psychology. It replaced behaviourism's exclusive focus on observable stimuli and responses with the study of internal mental processes, modelled as information processing, and it led to cognitive psychology and cognitive science.
What was the main focus of the cognitive revolution?
Its main focus was understanding mental processes: how people perceive, attend, remember, use language, reason and solve problems. The cognitive revolution created an impetus for psychologists to focus their attention on better understanding the mind, rather than behaviour alone.
When did the cognitive revolution happen?
It unfolded mainly between the mid-1950s and the late 1960s. George Miller dated its symbolic beginning to 11 September 1956, the second day of the MIT Symposium on Information Theory, and Ulric Neisser's 1967 textbook Cognitive Psychology marked its consolidation.
Who started the cognitive revolution?
No single person started it. Key contributors include Noam Chomsky (linguistics), George Miller and Jerome Bruner (psychology), Allen Newell and Herbert Simon (artificial intelligence), Donald Broadbent (attention) and Ulric Neisser, who synthesised the new field.
Why did the cognitive revolution replace behaviorism?
Behaviourism struggled to explain language, planning, problem solving and memory, all of which seem to require internal representations. The computer offered a rigorous way to describe such representations and processes, making it scientifically respectable to study the mind again.
