Cognitivism.
During the 1960s, discontent with the inadequacies of behaviourism another school of thought was developing besides the behavioural thinking, the cognitive aspects. The behaviourist perspective could not easily explain why people attempt to organise and make sense of the information they learn. One example includes remembering general meanings rather than word for word information. Among learning psychologists there emerged a growing realisation that mental events or cognition could no longer be ignored
Cognitive psychologists share with behaviourists the belief that the study of learning should be objective and that learning theories should be developed from the results of empirical research. However, cognitivists disagree with the behaviourists in one critical aspect. By observing the responses that individuals make to different stimulus conditions, cognitivists believe that they can draw inferences about the nature of the internal cognitive processes that produce those responses.
Many ideas and assumptions of cognitivism can be traced back to the early decades of the twentieth century. Of all theories, the theories of Jean Piaget of Switzerland are the ones that have provided psychology with very elaborated account of developmental changes in cognitive abilities.