Cognitive psychology is a relatively new branch of psychology that focuses on mental processes such as the way people learn, perceive, think, and remember. It has a prime focus on how individuals acquire process and retain information. In the year 1967, Ulric Neisser, who was an American psychologist, published his book Cognitive Psychology making him the first person to use the term "cognitive psychology." According to this psychologist, cognition refers to all the processes that transform, reduce, elaborate, store, recover, and use the sensory input (McLeod, 2007). From this definition, it is evident that cognition is involved in every human being's thought and actions. .
According to Ulric Neisser's book "Cognitive Psychology," the human mind has been viewed as performing its functions similar to computers. This approach was introduced in order to counter the behavioral approach that was not satisfactory. The behavioral approach only focused on the visible behavior and did not understand the internal process that caused the behavior. This approach bases its argument that a person's behavior is instigated by a series of stimuli and the body's response to the stimuli. However, cognitive psychology focuses on internal mental states that characterize an action (Sternberg, 2008). .
The modern day study of cognition asserts that the brain is an amazing and complex computing system. This is because it can process, store, and recall information, and is capable of influencing how we feel and behave. All these processes take place simultaneously or in milliseconds from each other. Cognitive psychology aims at helping individuals to understand how the human thought functions in order for individuals to be able to acquire, process, and store certain information (McLeod, 2007). Cognitive approach focuses on how individuals think since the thoughts have a direct impact on how an individual behaves.