Cognitive Psychology: The Science of How We Think

Have you ever wondered why you remember certain details without even trying, yet other important information slips your mind so quickly? This is just one example of the type of questions that someone working in the field of cognitive psychology might try to answer.

What Is Cognitive Psychology? 

Cognitive psychology involves the study of internal mental processes—all of the things that go on inside your brain, including perception, thinking, memory, attention, language, problem-solving, and learning. While it is a relatively young branch of psychology, it has quickly grown to become one of the most popular subfields.

There are numerous practical applications for this cognitive research, such as providing help coping with memory disorders, increasing decision-makingaccuracy, finding ways to help people recover from brain injury, treating learning disorders, and structuring educational curricula to enhance learning.

Learning more about how people think and process information not only helps researchers gain a deeper understanding of how the human brain works, but it allows psychologists to develop new ways of helping people deal with psychological difficulties. For example, by recognizing that attention is both a selective and limited resource, psychologists are able come up with solutions that make it easier for people with attentional difficulties to improve their focus and concentration.

Findings from cognitive psychology have also improved our understanding of how people form, store, and recall memories. By knowing more about how these processes work, psychologists can develop new ways of helping people improve their memories and combat potential memory problems.

For example, psychologists have found that while your short-term memory is quite short and limited (lasting just 20 to 30 seconds and capable of holding between five and nine items), rehearsal strategies can improve the chances that information will be transferred to long-term memory, which is much more stable and durable.

When You Might Need to See a Cognitive Psychologist 

While many cognitive psychologists specialize in research and are employed by universities or government agencies, others take a clinical focus and work directly with individuals who are experiencing challenges related to different mental processes. They may work in hospitals, mental health clinics, or private practices.

Psychologists who work in this area often focus on a particular area of interest such as memory, while others might instead choose to work directly on specific health concerns related to cognition, such as degenerative brain disorders or brain injuries.

Reasons to Consult a Cognitive Psychologist

• To treat a psychological illness with cognitive therapy methods
• To explore treatment options for brain trauma
• If you are experiencing perceptual or sensory issues
• As part of therapy for a speech or language disorder
• If you are experiencing Alzheimer's disease, dementia, or memory loss
• To explore different interventions for learning disabilities

The work of cognitive psychologists is essential for helping people who have experienced issues with mental processes. While we tend to take abilities such as attention and problem solving for granted, perhaps because they are so woven into the fabric of our everyday existence, cognitive disruptions can create havoc in multiple areas of an individual's life. Attention problems can make it difficult to focus at work or at school. Even relatively minor memory problems can make it a struggle to handle the demands of everyday life.

Consider, for example, how negative thinking can interfere with your health and happiness. We all experience these negative thoughts from time to time, but some people may find themselves overwhelmed with pessimistic thinking patterns that make it difficult to function in daily life. These ruminations can lead to increased stress levels, pessimism, and self-sabotaging, and can even contribute to feelings of learned helplessness.

With the help of cognitive psychologists, people are often able to find ways to cope and even overcome such difficulties.

Therapy treatments rooted in cognitive research focus on helping people change these negative thinking patterns and replace such thoughts with more positive and realistic ones.