cognitive linguistics (also cognitive psychology)

Interdisciplinary direction of research developed at the end of the 1950s in the United States that is concerned with the investigation of mental processes in the acquisition and use of knowledge and language. In contrast with behaviorism that concentrates on observable behavior and stimulus-response processes, behavior in cognitive linguistics plays only a mediating role inasmuch as it supports insights into cognitive processes. The object of investigation is research into cognitive or mental structure and organization by analyzing cognitive strategies used by humans in thinking, storing information, comprehending, and producing language.