Cognitive Psychology

The question of how we think has occupied thinkers for over two millennia. The scientific field of Cognitive Psychology has been addressing this question using modern scientific methods. In this class, you will become familiar with the main theories, paradigms, and experimental evidence in the field of Cognitive Psychology. We will start by situating the modern science of the mind in historical perspective and will then continue to review research in different areas of cognition, most notably attention, memory, language, problem solving and judgment and decision-making. In all areas, we will review different theoretical perspectives and note how these perspectives are supported by experimental work.

Learning Outcomes

After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Recognize and apply basic terminology and concepts from Cognitive Psychology
• Understand the methods used to test theories of cognitive processes and representations
• Recognize how brain processes constrain mental processes
• Apply basic cognitive principles to everyday situations
• Understand how higher order cognitive activities such as language, problem solving and decision-making relate to basic memory, attention and perception processes.
• Compare and contrast theoretical perspectives on, and approaches to the study of behavior and mental processes.
• Evaluate controversial stances within Cognitive Science.