The Computational Metaphor and Cognitive Psychology

The past three decades have witnessed a remarkable growth of research interest in the mind. This trend has
been acclaimed as the ‘cognitive revolution’ in psychology. At the heart of this revolution lies the claim that
the mind is a computational system. The purpose of this paper is both to elucidate this claim and to evaluate
its implications for cognitive psychology. The nature and scope of cognitive psychology and cognitive
science are outlined, the principal assumptions underlying the information processing approach to cognition
are summarised and the nature of artificial intelligence and its relationship to cognitive science are
explored. The ‘computational metaphor’ of mind is examined and both the theoretical and methodological
issues which it raises for cognitive psychology are considered. Finally, the nature and significance of ‘connectionism’—
the latest paradigm in cognitive science—are briefly reviewed.