ke introspection, later researchers conducted experiments in where testing how selected variables influenced memory rather then to describe and report the sensations produced by the stimulus.Behaviorism and the Beginnings of Cognitive Psychology* William James A "competitor" to Wundt's concepts of introspection/structuralism was William James, and his school of thought, functionalism. Functionalism was based on the belief that psychology should study the function and purpose of consciousness, instead of its structure. While James' formal training was in medicine, he quickly became bored of it, with it being not intellectually challenging enough. James was highly impressed with Darwin's natural selection theory, where only the fittest survive. James applied this theory to humans where he noted that consciousness is an important characteristic of our species--from which he argued that psychology should investigate the functions of consciousness, rather then, the structure. He argued that consciousness is a stream of thought, and when one analyzes consciousness into its elements, structuralists would look at static points in the flow. Functionalists did not concentrate on sensation and perception, but instead on mental testing, patterns of developments in kinds, behavioral differences in the two sexes, etc. Cognition started to become the focus of study as functionalism played out its role, and on to Behaviorism and Gestalt psychology. * John B. Watson John Watson believed that psychologists should only study observable behavior, hence his school of thought called behaviorism. He proposed that psychologists should abandon the study of consciousness altogether, and focus on behaviors that could be directly observed. This way, he asserted, all data collected could be verified via using the scientific method. Behaviorists began to concentrate their studies by using the stimulus-response psychology method....
