ABSTRACT
This chapter claims that comparative cognitive research encounters similar problems and promises similar potential benefits to cognitive theory across a very broad spectrum of possible population comparisons. It discusses several research topics, in each case attempting to point out developments which set the stage for comparative studies. The chapter reviews two aspects of the question of the relevance of cognitive theory to other areas of psychology, and ultimately to society. A currently active area of research in cognitive psychology which has close historical ties with the study of selective learning is concept learning. The 1950s and 1960s were characterized by more limited goals in theory construction as the global theories of the 1940s were superseded by models attempting to describe behavior in single experimental situations. The Kendlers have applied their theory to a broad range of problem-solving phenomena, and it is not surprising that it has come in for a good deal of criticism on both empirical and theoretical grounds.
