An Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology focuses on the study of higher mental processes including thinking, language, memory, problem-solving, reasoning, judging and decision-making.

This is the branch of psychology that focuses on the way people process information.

The term “cognitive psychology” was first coined by Ulric Neisser in 1967.

1.1.       4 kinds of research methods in cognitive psychology:

a) Experimentation;

b)   Psychobiological Research: Post-Mortem, studying images and obtaining information.

c)    Self-reports, case studies and Naturalistic observations

d)   Computer Simulations and Artificial Intelligence

1.2.      Domains in Cognitive Psychology:

a)    Cognitive Neuroscience; b) Perception; c) Pattern recognition; d) Attention; e) Consciousness; f) Memory; g) Representation of Knowledge; h) Imagery; i) Language; j) Developmental Psychology; k) Thinking and concept formation; and  l) Human and artificial intelligence.

1.3.      Key issues in Cognitive Psychology:

a)    Nature versus Nurture

a)    Rationalism versus Empiricism

b)   Structures versus Processes

c)    Domain generality versus Domain specificity

d)   Validity of causal inferences versus Ecological validity

e)    Applied versus Basic research

f)     Biological versus Behavioural methods 

1.1.      Learning and Memory:

Learning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviours, skills, values, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesising and processing different types of information. Benjamin Bloom (1965) has suggested three domains of learning.

Memory is usually divided into three storage systems: sensory, short-term, and long-term.