Read the notes, then try the practice. It adapts as you go.When you're ready.
Session Length
~17 min
Adaptive Checks
15 questions
Transfer Probes
8
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes, including how people perceive, think, remember, learn, solve problems, and make decisions. As a branch of psychology that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as a reaction to behaviorism, it focuses on internal mental states rather than purely observable behavior. The cognitive revolution, spearheaded by researchers such as Ulric Neisser, George Miller, and Noam Chomsky, established the mind as a legitimate subject of scientific inquiry by drawing analogies between human cognition and information processing in computers.
The field investigates a wide range of mental functions, including attention, perception, memory, language, problem-solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychologists use experimental methods to build models of how the mind encodes, stores, and retrieves information. Key frameworks such as the multi-store model of memory, schema theory, and dual-process theory have profoundly shaped our understanding of why people think and behave the way they do. Research in cognitive psychology has also revealed systematic errors in human thinking, known as cognitive biases, which affect judgment and decision-making in predictable ways.
Today, cognitive psychology intersects with neuroscience (forming cognitive neuroscience), artificial intelligence, linguistics, education, and clinical therapy. Its practical applications span from designing user-friendly technology and improving educational methods to treating mental health conditions through cognitive-behavioral therapy. Understanding cognitive processes is essential for anyone seeking insight into human behavior, learning, communication, or the design of systems that interact with human minds.
One step at a time.
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.
Example: When you mentally calculate a tip at a restaurant, you hold the meal total in mind while performing arithmetic operations, using your working memory.
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).
Example: A textbook that presents a complex diagram alongside a paragraph explaining the same content forces learners to split attention, increasing extraneous cognitive load and reducing learning.
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.
Example: A child who has a schema for 'dog' may initially call all four-legged animals dogs, then gradually refine the schema as they encounter cats, horses, and other animals.
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.
Example: When asked 'What is 2 + 2?', System 1 instantly produces the answer. When asked 'What is 347 times 28?', System 2 must engage in effortful calculation.
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.
Example: At a crowded party, you can focus on one conversation while filtering out surrounding noise, a phenomenon known as the cocktail party effect.
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.
Example: When studying for an exam, you encode information by reading and making notes, store it through rehearsal and sleep consolidation, and retrieve it when answering questions during the test.
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.
Example: A person who believes a particular diet is effective may pay close attention to success stories while dismissing studies that show no benefit.
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).
Example: A student who realizes they do not understand a paragraph and decides to re-read it more slowly is exercising metacognitive monitoring and regulation.
More terms are available in the glossary.
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