Understanding objects and events in the world and the ability make inferences about them. 

Conceptual Knowledge 

Stores our knowledge of words. Contains what a word means, how it sounds and how they are used in relation to other words.

Lexicon

People who devote a lot of time to learning about something (10,000 - 20,000 hours) and become extremely knowledgeable and skilled.

Experts

Some psychologists make the distinction between two major types of knowledge:
- Explicit knowledge (i.e., factual, taught in school)
- Tacit knowledge (i.e., procedural, wisdom)

Two Major Types of Knowledge (Tacit and Explicit)

Encoding knowledge as a function of the representational infrastructure to expresses that knowledge.

Structuration

"Information" as knowledge is the fact, subject, or event that an individual consumes and/or communicates

Information as knowledge 

- No universal definition 
- A study by Facione and Facione (1996) described critical thinking as reasoning used to make professionally informed decisions in time-constrained, high-stakes, novel-problem situations.
- Process of purposeful, self-regulatory judgement. This process gives reasoned consideration to evidence, context, conceptualization. Methods, and criteria (APA 1990)  


Critical Thinking 

Knowledge References

Gaining understanding of a written text by coming to a conclusion of its meaning. Comprehension occurs based off of the reader's prior knowledge of language and ability to make inferences.

Reading Comprehension

Visually representing knowledge to facilitate its communication.
It can be done using a computer or not.

Knowledge Visualization

A structured way of representing knowledge.
It consists of entities, relationships, and semantic descriptions. In other words, knowledge graphs represent logical relationship between entities.

Knowledge Graph

Ability to provide support, refute, and claim for justification, which could directly influence people understanding of the complexity of scientific knowledge

Argumentation

Knowledge acquired ahead of time/ beforehand.

Prior Knowledge

Knowledge dissemination is the process of sharing knowledge or information to a wider audience, often with the goal of increasing awareness and understanding of a particular topic or concept. This can be done through a variety of methods, including publishing research papers, conducting seminars or workshops, giving talks or presentations, using social media, or through various forms of media like newspapers, magazines, television, and the internet.

Knowledge Dissemination

The method of authority is a common approach to acquiring knowledge in which individuals accept new ideas or information as true simply because an authority figure states them. Common sources of this type of knowledge include parents, the media, doctors, religious authorities, the government, and professors. While convenient, this method raises important questions about whether information from these sources should be trusted unconditionally.

Method of Authority

A method of knowing is a conceptual process or approach that individuals use to acquire knowledge, form beliefs, and understand the world. These approaches can be broken down into five main categories, ranging from relying on subjective sources like intuition to depending on empirical evidence. Each category possesses its own unique strengths and weaknesses when it comes to determining whether we should trust the knowledge derived from it.

Method of Knowing

Understanding or awareness of something or the sum total of one's understanding/awareness of all things.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Boston College

San Jose State University

Georgetown University

Cognitive psychology is an area of psychology that focuses on studying cognitions, or thoughts, and their relationship to our experiences and actions. Like biological psychology, it is broad in scope and often involves interdisciplinary collaborations to study mental processes such as:  - attention - language - memory - perception - problem-solving - creativity - thought - decision-making - processing - knowledge - learning

It also includes the study of computer-based cognitive models such as connectionism (parallel distributed processing). Fields that draw from cognitive psychology include learning science and developmental psychology.

Cognitive Psychology

The psychological and neurobiological operations by which information is processed, to build knowledge and understanding that supports decision making.

Cognition

- Intelligence
- Cognitive Development
- Motivation
- Self-Regulation
- Self-Concept
- Study Habits
- Student Diversity
- Learning Science
- Learning Disabilities
- Physical Development
- Memory
- Knowledge
- Levels of Education
- Academic Anxiety
- Academic Goals & Achievement 

Focuses of Educational Psychology

Cognition refers to the mental process of thinking. It encompasses a wide array of mental activities, including perception, knowledge acquisition, problem-solving, judgment, language, and memory.

Cognition (Thinking)

Wikipedia

The flow of ideas and associations that can lead to conclusions or actions

Thought

Choosing a belief, action or object out of a set of alternative options.

Decision-Making

The process of consciously focusing on specific stimuli. Attention is a limited resource, but automatic processing allows us to use our limited attention on other stimuli while performing an automatic task.

Attention

Information and knowledge encoded into the brain to be retrieved 

Memory

Perception is the complex psychological process of organizing, interpreting, and consciously experiencing sensory information. It involves making sense of the raw data detected by sensory receptors, actively shaping our conscious experience based on focused attention, past experiences, and cultural background.

Perception

Creativity is the ability to generate, create, or discover new ideas, solutions, and possibilities.

Creativity

- Structuralism
- Behaviorism 
- Cognitive revolution

Early schools of thought/movements in Psychology (leading up to cognitive psychology)

Contributing fields to cognitive psychology

Contains Sources Relevant to Cognitive Psychology:
- Sources From Books
- Sources from Journals
- Sources from Websites
- Journals from Organizations 

References for Cognitive Psychology

Processing (cognitive)

Knowledge

Learning science an interdisciplinary field that works to further our understanding of learning as well as to engage in the design and implementation of learning innovations. Contributing fields include cognitive science, computer science, educational psychology, anthropology, and applied linguistics. 

Learning Science

An approach to computer-based cognitive model in which concepts are represented by distributed activity across a network.

Connectionism (parallel distributed processing (PDP))

Problem solving is a fundamental cognitive process people engage in daily to find solutions for challenges they encounter. These challenges can range from straightforward tasks, such as doubling a recipe, to more complex situations, like handling an unexpected equipment failure under a tight deadline. A more formal definition states that "problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods in an orderly manner to find solutions to problems."

Problem Solving

Cognitive psychology helps designers to overcome psychological barriers and create products that are more intuitive for the products to be more readable, accessible, easy to navigate and allowing for users to use products more intuitively. 

UX Research and Cognitive Psychology

It is something that accompanies a mechanism but is not actually part of that mechanism. Looking at that something will not tell us anything about what is going on in the "mechanism". Examples include:
- Experiences of mental imagery

Epiphenomenon

Which of the following best describes the focus of cognitive psychology?

Which of the following is an example of a mental process studied in cognitive psychology?

Which of the following fields draws from cognitive psychology to understand how people learn?

Which of the following concepts is central to cognitive psychology?

Language is a formal system of communication that is structured by a set of rules, known as grammar, and utilizes a vocabulary of words, referred to as a lexicon.

Language

A cognitive psychologist is a psychologist who studies thinking and explores questions related to mental processes. They investigate topics such as how people determine the best way to solve problems, how individuals develop an understanding of concepts without direct physical experience (for example, understanding snow without ever seeing or touching it), and how young children acquire language without formal instruction.

Cognitive Psychologist

Cognitive psychologists investigate a wide array of subjects to better understand human mental processes. Specific areas of study include determining and measuring different types of intelligence, analyzing why individuals vary in their problem-solving abilities, and evaluating how emotional intelligence influences success in the workplace. Additionally, researchers explore how individuals organize information gathered from their environments into meaningful categories of thought.

Research Topics in Cognitive Psychology

Theories and Perspectives on Cognition

Humans (and other animals) are considered cognitive misers. This is some being that conserves mental energy by simplifying the complexity of cognition. It leads to taking mental shortcuts  (heuristics) which can bias behavior.

Cognitive Misers

Humans believe that their subjective view of reality is reality. People believe that they see things as they really are and others don't.

Naive Realism

Intelligence is a complex cognitive characteristic involving the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. It enables individuals to reason, solve problems, plan, and adapt to new situations using logic, understanding, and creativity. Numerous theories have been developed to explain its nature, such as Sternberg's triarchic theory and Gardner's proposal that intelligence comprises multiple factors. Other perspectives also emphasize the significance of emotional intelligence.

Intelligence

Diversity in a group of individuals information, knowledge, representations, mental models and heuristics. It can improve problem solving, predicting and designing.

Cognitive Diversity

The different cognitive tools an individual has - the ways they can think. People have certain talents and skills.

Cognitive Repertoire

Cognitive development refers to the changes in an individual's mental processes. This domain includes the development of learning, attention, memory, language abilities, thinking, reasoning skills, and creativity.

Cognitive Development

Different perspectives, knowledge, attention, processing abilities, skills, and talents.

Cognitive Resources

A state of mind that occurs when there a person holds two or more inconsistent cognitions (i.e., ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, etc.) It results in an unpleasant feeling of mental discomfort and is not the product of a physiological need. This discomfort is hypothesized to be a result of our desire find reason in the world and erase absurdity. Another way at looking at it is that it occurs when our self-justifications conflict. 

Cognitive Dissonance

A measure of analytic thinking and one's tendency to override their initial beliefs. 

Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT)

the awareness, understanding, and adjustment of one’s own thought processes 

Metacognition

Imagination refers to the capability of creating mental representations of concepts, ideas, images, sensations, perspectives, possibilities, or experiences that are not present or accessible in the immediate physical environment.

Imagination

Cognition includes the processes associated with: 
* Perception
* Knowledge
* Problem solving
* Judgment
* Language
* Memory

Components of Cognition

Social cognition refers to the ways in which individuals think about themselves and others. As a key intrapersonal topic in social psychology, it focuses on the mental processes involved in perceiving, interpreting, and remembering information about the social world.

Social Cognition

Cognition is an exceptionally complex process that serves as an essential feature of human consciousness. Despite its central role in shaping conscious awareness, many aspects of cognitive functioning occur unconsciously and are not actively experienced by the individual.

Cognition and Consciousness

A person's own perception or evaluation of themselves, includes feelings, attitudes, behaviors, desires, and judgements that one considers to be characteristic of themselves.

Self-Concept

Motivation

How personality affects an individual's behavior in an educational setting, thereby influencing their learning experience.

Personality Psychology in Education

Learning disabilities are cognitive disorders that impact specific areas of cognition, such as language or reading. They are classified as specific neurological impairments, distinguishing them from global intellectual or developmental disabilities. A key characteristic is that they often affect individuals with average to above-average intelligence, meaning the disability is confined to a particular cognitive area and is not an indicator of overall intellectual capability.

Learning Disabilities

The levels of education indicate how rigorous a curriculum is. Students start at the lower levels and move up as they graduate from each level.
- Higher level
- Secondary level 
- Basic education

Levels of education

Being able to control your time, schedule, behaviors and to adapt to situations in order to obtain a personal goal.

Self-Regulation

The demographics of a group of students. The more varried the demographics are, the more diverse the group is.

Student Diversity

A person's overall subjective evaluation on their worth, and how they feel about the evaluation. Those with high self esteem tend to feel hopeful, and those with low self esteem tend to feel hopeless and withdraw. Typically either a positive or negative evaluation of traits, abilities, etc.

Self-Esteem

Physical development is the sense of students’ health needs related to their age or maturity and the foundation of many academic tasks. 

* For Example:
- Successfully manipulate a pencil
- How long they can sit still without discomfort

Physical Development in Students

 “The acquisition of knowledge and skill through active help and support among status equals or matched companions”

Peer Learning

The learner’s dictionary defines study as “ the mental effort to obtain knowledge.” This means that studying is essentially the “art of learning” which can help the individual not just obtain information but also the habit and skill to study. Habit on the other hand is defined as “ a pattern of activity which through repetition, has been learned to the point that it has become automatic and can be carried on with a minimum of conscious effect.”


Study Habits

Academic Anxiety is the feelings of concern, worry, and dread associated with academic settings and tasks. Assignments, tests, exams, subjects, and societal pressures (parents, peers, instructors, etc.) are all factors in academic anxiety. There will usually be noticeably high areas of concern in the following areas: physiological, cognitive, behavioral, and (occasionally) social. 

Academic Anxiety 

Academic goals are aspirations applicable to the advancement of your education. They involve the knowledge you acquire and the projects you complete as a student.

Academic Goals

Which of the following best describes cognition?

Which of the following activities is an example of cognition?

Which of the following processes is most directly related to cognition?

Which of the following scenarios best illustrates the concept of cognition?

A significant portion of the brain's cognitive activity, such as perceiving, processing, and organizing information, occurs without our conscious awareness. While we navigate our daily lives, our brains are constantly active, yet most of this underlying mental work goes unnoticed.

Unconscious Cognitive Processes

A practical example of cognition is the mental process of planning daily tasks. This involves contemplating a series of errands, such as visiting the bank, cleaners, and grocery store, and then organizing them in a logical sequence based on factors like timing and location, such as deciding whether to complete them before or after a scheduled class.

Planning Daily Errands as an Example of Cognition

Emotions and memories are powerful forces that actively shape our thoughts and subsequent behaviors. This relationship is not one-way; thoughts also create a feedback loop, influencing and modifying our emotions and memories. This reciprocal interaction highlights the deeply interconnected nature of different cognitive functions.

Reciprocal Influence Between Thoughts, Emotions, and Memories

Scientists who study cognition aim to understand how individuals integrate, organize, and utilize their conscious cognitive experiences, despite being unaware of the vast amount of unconscious work the brain continuously performs.

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