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Learn Cognitive Psychology

How the mind attends, remembers, reasons and decides, studied by experiment.

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Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes: perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving and decision making. It grew in the 1950s and 1960s as researchers moved beyond strict behaviorism, and Ulric Neisser's 1967 book Cognitive Psychology helped name the field. You learn the classic models, such as the multi-store model of memory and Baddeley and Hitch's working memory, through the experiments behind them, from the Stroop task to studies of eyewitness memory. Learnr builds short lessons where you try simplified versions of these tasks yourself. It is educational and not a substitute for advice from a professional on any memory or mental health concern.

How to learn Cognitive Psychology, step by step

Learn how cognition is studied. Cognitive psychologists infer hidden processes from reaction times, error rates and recall scores. Get comfortable with independent and dependent variables and with what a reaction time difference of a few hundred milliseconds can and cannot tell you.
Try the attention experiments yourself. Do an online Stroop test, where naming the ink color of a conflicting color word slows you down, and read about Colin Cherry's cocktail party work and inattentional blindness. Experiencing the effect makes the theories behind it far easier to remember.
Build the memory models step by step. Start with Atkinson and Shiffrin's 1968 multi-store model, then see why Baddeley and Hitch replaced short-term memory with a working memory system containing a phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and central executive.
Study forgetting and false memory. Plot Hermann Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve, learn the levels of processing idea from Craik and Lockhart, and read Loftus and Palmer's 1974 study where the verb in a question changed speed estimates of a car crash.
Apply findings to how you study. Retrieval practice and spacing are among the most robust findings in the field. Use them on the course material itself, testing yourself rather than rereading, which also shows you the research working.
Review in spaced, short sessions. Learnr's daily bite-sized lessons and streaks bring earlier models back at intervals, the same spacing principle the field documents, so terms such as encoding specificity and proactive interference stay clear.

What you'll learn

Explain how attention filters information, using the cocktail party effect and Stroop task
Compare the multi-store model of memory with the working memory model
Describe how memories are encoded, stored, retrieved and distorted
Explain how people solve problems and where reasoning goes wrong
Evaluate cognitive experiments, including their methods and limitations

What's inside your Cognitive Psychology course

A sample path Learnr builds for Cognitive Psychology. Your real course adapts to your goal and level.

1. The cognitive revolution and research methods
2. Perception and attention
3. Short-term and working memory
4. Long-term memory, forgetting and false memory
5. Language and concepts
6. Problem solving, reasoning and decision making

How long does it take to learn Cognitive Psychology?

An introductory course covering attention, memory, language and reasoning takes about 6 to 10 weeks at 3 to 4 hours a week. A background in general psychology or statistics makes reading original studies faster.

What you need before you start

No prerequisites, though an introductory psychology course and basic statistics help with reading experiments and understanding results.

Common mistakes to avoid

Treating the brain as a literal computer. The information processing metaphor is useful, but memory reconstructs rather than replays recordings.
Remembering the magical number seven as a fixed rule. Later research suggests working memory capacity is smaller and depends on chunking.
Learning models without their evidence. For each model, know which experiment supports it and which findings challenged it.

How Learnr builds your course

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Cognitive Psychology questions, answered

What is the difference between cognitive psychology and neuroscience?

Cognitive psychology studies mental processes mainly through behavior in experiments. Neuroscience studies the brain and nervous system directly. Cognitive neuroscience combines the two, for example linking memory tasks to brain imaging.

Is memory reliable?

Memory is often accurate for the gist but can be distorted by later information, expectations and leading questions, as eyewitness research shows. It is reconstructive rather than a perfect record.