Cognitive Psychology Explores Our Mental Processes

The human brain is an amazing and powerful tool. It allows us to learn, see, remember, hear, perceive, understand and create language. Sometimes, the human brain also fails us.

Cognitive psychologists study how people acquire, perceive, process and store information. This work can range from exploring how we learn language to understanding the interplay between cognition and emotion.

New technologies like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allow researchers to see a picture of the brain at work — helping them to understand how a brain reacts to a particular stimulus or how differences in brain structure can affect a person’s health, personality or cognitive functioning.

Brain science and cognitive psychology is one of the most versatile psychological specialty areas today — and one of the most in demand. All professions have a compelling interest in how the brain works. Educators, curriculum designers, engineers, scientists, judges, public health and safety officials, architects and graphic designers all want to know more about how the brain processes information. Their research and its resulting applications have become an integral part of how organizations, schools and businesses function and succeed. In clinical settings, cognitive psychologists seek to treat issues related to human mental processes, including Alzheimer’s disease, speech issues, memory loss and sensory or perception difficulties.