Cognitive Psychology

A limited-capacity cognitive system responsible for temporarily holding and manipulating information needed for complex tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension. Baddeley's model proposes components including the central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer.

A theory proposing that learning is most effective when instructional design accounts for the limited capacity of working memory. It distinguishes between intrinsic load (complexity of the material), extraneous load (poor instructional design), and germane load (effort devoted to schema building).

The concept that knowledge is organized into mental frameworks called schemas, which help individuals interpret new information, make predictions, and fill in gaps in understanding. Schemas are built through experience and can be modified through assimilation and accommodation.

A framework describing two distinct systems of thinking: System 1, which is fast, automatic, and intuitive, and System 2, which is slow, deliberate, and analytical. Most cognitive biases arise when people rely on System 1 in situations that require System 2 reasoning.

The cognitive process of focusing on a particular stimulus or task while ignoring irrelevant information. Models include Broadbent's filter model, Treisman's attenuation model, and Deutsch and Deutsch's late selection model.

The three fundamental stages of memory processing. Encoding transforms sensory information into a mental representation, storage maintains the encoded information over time, and retrieval accesses stored information when needed.

The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information that confirms or supports pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less attention to information that contradicts them.

The awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes, often described as 'thinking about thinking.' It includes metacognitive knowledge (knowing what you know), metacognitive regulation (planning and monitoring your cognition), and metacognitive experience (feelings of knowing or difficulty).

The psychological discomfort experienced when holding two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes simultaneously. People are motivated to reduce this dissonance by changing beliefs, adding consonant cognitions, or minimizing the importance of the conflict.

Heuristics are mental shortcuts that simplify decision-making and problem-solving, enabling quick judgments under uncertainty. While often useful, they can lead to systematic cognitive biases such as the availability heuristic, representativeness heuristic, and anchoring bias.