The impact of computers on cognitive psychology

Computer developments and their applications in cognitive psychology are reviewed. Examples from recent studies illustrate the ways that computers are used for different research purposes: stimulus generation, on-line interactive experimental control, response collection, data analysis, and theory building. A quantitative analysis of federal funding for computer-based and noncomputer research compares costs over the past 9 years for the areas of perception, memory, learning, and thinking. A tabulation of journal articles relevant to computer-based cognitive research shows the distribution of articles over various categories of hardware and software development. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of using computers in cognitive research are evaluated.