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A-Grade Psychology Final Exam Study Guide
Cognitive Psychology Summary and Practice
Questions 2026/2027.
Part 1: Comprehensive Summary of Cognitive Psychology
1.1 What is Cognitive Psychology?
Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on the
study of human thinking, including how people process information,
perceive their environment, learn new concepts, remember information,
and use language . It is fundamentally concerned with mental
states rather than just observable behaviors, characterizing people as
dynamic information-processing systems .
The field emerged as a response to behaviorism, which was the
predominant school of thought in psychology during the 1950s. The
"cognitive revolution" was born out of a reaction to behaviorism's
refusal to consider inner mental processes, with key figures like Noam
Chomsky pointing to phenomena such as language acquisition to build
evidence that behaviorism could not explain all aspects of human
psychology .
Core Definition
Cognitive psychology is the study of how information is processed by
the brain. It includes the mental processes involved in perception,
learning, memory storage, thinking, and language .
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1.2 Historical Foundations and Key Contributors
Key Figures in Cognitive Psychology
Researcher Major Contribution
Credited with coining the term "cognitive psychology" and kno
Ulric Neisser
for his work on iconic memory
Determined that short-term memory can generally only hold 7
George Miller
(±2) items of information
Hermann One of the first scientists to correlate brain activity with change
Ebbinghaus in behavior; pioneered memory research using nonsense syllabl
Revolutionized psycholinguistics; challenged behaviorism with
Noam Chomsky
his work on language acquisition and transformational gramma
Jean Piaget Pioneered work on cognitive development in children
Endel Tulving Distinguished between episodic and semantic memory systems
Four Main Strands of Research
Historically, four main strands of research have contributed to our
present understanding of cognitive psychology :
1. Experimental cognitive psychology - Provides theories to explain
how the brain interprets incoming information
2. Cognitive neuroscience - Investigates human cognition by
relating it to brain structure and function using brain-imaging
techniques
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3. Cognitive neuropsychology - Studies brain activities underlying
cognitive processes by investigating cognitive impairment in brain-
damaged patients
4. Computer modeling - Simulates human cognitive processes by
computer to test the feasibility of information-processing
mechanisms
1.3 The Computer Metaphor and Information Processing
Most individuals who work within the field of cognitive science believe
that the mind is analogous to a computer . This information-processing
approach suggests that:
• The mind processes information in stages, similar to how a
computer processes data
• Information flows through a system with limited capacity
• There are distinct structures for different types of processing (e.g.,
sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory)
Connectionism
Connectionism (also called Parallel Distributed Processing) is a
subspecialty within cognitive science that attempts to be biologically
accurate by modeling the behavior of large numbers of realistic neurons
organized into functionally significant brain areas . From a philosophical
standpoint, connectionism proposes that people have representations that
involve simple processing units linked to each other by excitatory and
inhibitory connections .
A connectionist network consists of:
• Input units (receiving information)
• Hidden units (processing information)
, 4|Page
• Output units (producing responses)
• Connections with weights that strengthen or weaken through
learning
1.4 Key Concepts in Cognitive Psychology
Schemas
A schema is a mental pattern, usually derived from past experience,
which is used to assist with the interpretation of subsequent cognitions .
Schemas help us:
• Identify familiar shapes and sounds in new perceptual input
• Organize information in memory
• Make inferences about situations
Schema Theory postulates that past experience is used to analyze new
perceptual input . When we process information from the world around
us, we use schemas to:
Useful aspects of schemas :
• They help us interpret and predict events in our world efficiently
• They allow us to process information quickly without being
overwhelmed by every detail
Limitations of schemas :
• They can lead to errors in recall when we remember schema-
consistent information that didn't actually occur
• They may cause us to ignore or distort information that doesn't fit
our existing mental frameworks
A-Grade Psychology Final Exam Study Guide
Cognitive Psychology Summary and Practice
Questions 2026/2027.
Part 1: Comprehensive Summary of Cognitive Psychology
1.1 What is Cognitive Psychology?
Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on the
study of human thinking, including how people process information,
perceive their environment, learn new concepts, remember information,
and use language . It is fundamentally concerned with mental
states rather than just observable behaviors, characterizing people as
dynamic information-processing systems .
The field emerged as a response to behaviorism, which was the
predominant school of thought in psychology during the 1950s. The
"cognitive revolution" was born out of a reaction to behaviorism's
refusal to consider inner mental processes, with key figures like Noam
Chomsky pointing to phenomena such as language acquisition to build
evidence that behaviorism could not explain all aspects of human
psychology .
Core Definition
Cognitive psychology is the study of how information is processed by
the brain. It includes the mental processes involved in perception,
learning, memory storage, thinking, and language .
,2|Page
1.2 Historical Foundations and Key Contributors
Key Figures in Cognitive Psychology
Researcher Major Contribution
Credited with coining the term "cognitive psychology" and kno
Ulric Neisser
for his work on iconic memory
Determined that short-term memory can generally only hold 7
George Miller
(±2) items of information
Hermann One of the first scientists to correlate brain activity with change
Ebbinghaus in behavior; pioneered memory research using nonsense syllabl
Revolutionized psycholinguistics; challenged behaviorism with
Noam Chomsky
his work on language acquisition and transformational gramma
Jean Piaget Pioneered work on cognitive development in children
Endel Tulving Distinguished between episodic and semantic memory systems
Four Main Strands of Research
Historically, four main strands of research have contributed to our
present understanding of cognitive psychology :
1. Experimental cognitive psychology - Provides theories to explain
how the brain interprets incoming information
2. Cognitive neuroscience - Investigates human cognition by
relating it to brain structure and function using brain-imaging
techniques
,3|Page
3. Cognitive neuropsychology - Studies brain activities underlying
cognitive processes by investigating cognitive impairment in brain-
damaged patients
4. Computer modeling - Simulates human cognitive processes by
computer to test the feasibility of information-processing
mechanisms
1.3 The Computer Metaphor and Information Processing
Most individuals who work within the field of cognitive science believe
that the mind is analogous to a computer . This information-processing
approach suggests that:
• The mind processes information in stages, similar to how a
computer processes data
• Information flows through a system with limited capacity
• There are distinct structures for different types of processing (e.g.,
sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory)
Connectionism
Connectionism (also called Parallel Distributed Processing) is a
subspecialty within cognitive science that attempts to be biologically
accurate by modeling the behavior of large numbers of realistic neurons
organized into functionally significant brain areas . From a philosophical
standpoint, connectionism proposes that people have representations that
involve simple processing units linked to each other by excitatory and
inhibitory connections .
A connectionist network consists of:
• Input units (receiving information)
• Hidden units (processing information)
, 4|Page
• Output units (producing responses)
• Connections with weights that strengthen or weaken through
learning
1.4 Key Concepts in Cognitive Psychology
Schemas
A schema is a mental pattern, usually derived from past experience,
which is used to assist with the interpretation of subsequent cognitions .
Schemas help us:
• Identify familiar shapes and sounds in new perceptual input
• Organize information in memory
• Make inferences about situations
Schema Theory postulates that past experience is used to analyze new
perceptual input . When we process information from the world around
us, we use schemas to:
Useful aspects of schemas :
• They help us interpret and predict events in our world efficiently
• They allow us to process information quickly without being
overwhelmed by every detail
Limitations of schemas :
• They can lead to errors in recall when we remember schema-
consistent information that didn't actually occur
• They may cause us to ignore or distort information that doesn't fit
our existing mental frameworks
