What do I have to know about Cognitive Psychology?
‘Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on the way people process information. It looks at how we process information we receive and how the treatment of this information leads to our responses. In other words, cognitive psychology is interested in what is happening within our minds that links stimulus (input) and response (output). Cognitive psychologists study internal processes that include perception, attention, language, memory, and thinking. They ask questions like:
How do we receive information about the outside world?
How do we store and process information?
How do we solve problems?
How does a breakdown in our perceptions cause errors in our thinking?
How do errors in our thinking lead to emotional distress and negative behaviors?’
‘One strength of the cognitive approach it has always employed highly controlled and rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes at work. This has involved the use of lab experiments to produce reliable, objective data. The cognitive approach is probably the most dominant approach in psychology today and has been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts.’ However, ‘Cognitive psychology has often relied on comparisons with how computers work as a possible way the mind might work. Is this really how the brain works? The brain is infinitely more powerful and flexible than the most advanced computer.’ https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive.html
You need to keep this overview in mind as you learn the following key studies: