From Antiquity to Artificial Intelligence: Mind and Cognition Studies from the Perspective of Psychology

Among the subjects of psychology, the mind has been tried to be understood since the pre-scientific period. With Wundt's establishment of the first psychology laboratory, human behaviors were investigated with scientific methods, and the psychology journey began with these studies. Schools such as structuralism, functionalism, and behaviorism came to the fore according to the conditions of the period and cognitive studies have gained importance, especially with the development of technology in the recent period. Although most researchers state that behaviorism lost power with the cognitive revolution, it is also suggested that behaviorism transformed and continued its existence in parallel with the cognitive revolution. Behavioral psychologists such as Tolman and Hull were among the researchers who referred to the mind and provided the transition between behaviorism and cognitive psychology. Today, cognitive psychology studies have become dominant as one of the strongest sub-fields of experimental psychology. However, detailed experimental methods conducted during behaviorism continue to be used in cognitive studies. In this context, experimental psychology continues as the umbrella concept of many fields such as psychophysics, perception, attention, memory, thinking, decision-making, intelligence, development, social psychology, environmental psychology, and motivation. It has undergone significant changes since its inception, shifting from basic sensory and perception experiments to complex studies of cognitive, emotional, and social processes. With the pandemic period, online research has also increased outside of the laboratory environment. Especially during and after the pandemic period, a wide range of psychology studies continue to be conducted, from protecting human psychological health to understanding the mind in artificial intelligence research.