Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology is the study of how the brain processes information. More specifically, it is about the mental processes involved in acquiring and making use of the knowledge and experience gained from our senses, and also those involved in planning action. The main processes involved in cognition are perception, learning, memory storage, retrieval and thinking, all of which are terms used in everyday speech and therefore already familiar to most people. Various types of information are subjected to cognitive processing, including visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory or olfactory information, depending on the sensory system detecting it. However, humans have also developed the use of symbolic language, which can represent any other form of information. Thus language constitutes another important type of information that may be processed by the cognitive system.

All of these various aspects of cognition have been extensively studied in the laboratory, but in recent years there has been a growing interest in the application of cognitive psychology to situations in the real world. This approach is known as applied cognitive psychology, and it is concerned with the investigation of how cognitive processes affect our behaviour and performance in real-life settings. It is this research that provides the subject matter of this app.

The application of these techniques by police interviewers has generated further research, which has in turn fed back into theoretical cognitive psychology. Thus there has been a flow of information in both directions, with applied and theoretical research working hand in hand to the mutual benefit of both approaches. Our understanding of human cognition can only be enhanced by such a two-way flow of ideas and inspiration.


This app offers a review of recent research in applied cognitive psychology, and we have tried to include all of the main areas of cognition in which research has been applied in real-life settings. However, we have not included chapters on the clinical applications of cognitive psychology, because they have already been fully covered in clinical and neuropsychological textbooks.

The order in which the chapters are presented reflects the sequential order in which the various aspects of cognition tend to occur, so the early chapters are concerned with the initial uptake of information (attention and perception), followed by chapters dealing with information storage (memory and retrieval), and then chapters about the use of stored information (witness testimony, decision making). Next there are chapters dealing with factors that influence cognition (drugs, circadian rhythms, and emotions), and finally chapters on the role of cognition in particular activities undertaken in the real world (music and sport).

Topics such as memory and perception can of course be found in other cognitive psychology textbooks, but this app is quite different from most other cognitive texts in that it deals with the application of these cognitive topics in real-world settings. This app is concerned with cognition in real life, and we very much hope that you will find its contents have relevance to your life.

Contents

1 INTRODUCTION TO APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

2 PERCEPTION AND ATTENTION: ERRORS AND ACCIDENTS

3 FACE IDENTIFICATION

4 AUDITORY PERCEPTION

5 WORKING MEMORY AND PERFORMANCE LIMITATIONS

6 MEMORY IMPROVEMENT

7 EVERYDAY MEMORY

8 WITNESS INTERVIEWS AND CRIME INVESTIGATION

9 DECISION MAKING

10 THE EFFECTS OF DRUGS ON COGNITION

11 BIOLOGICAL CYCLES AND COGNITION

12 EMOTION AND COGNITION

13 MUSIC AND COGNITION

14 SPORTING PERFORMANCE, PRESSURE AND COGNITION: INTRODUCING ATTENTIONAL CONTROL THEORY: SPORT

References

Author index

Subject index