Overview
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of the mental processes that underlie how people perceive, represent, store, transform, and use information. It examines attention, perception, memory, language, concept formation, reasoning, problem-solving, decision-making, and the mechanisms by which thought guides behavior. Emerging in the mid-twentieth century as a response to behaviorism, the field treats the mind as an information-processing system and uses controlled experiments, reaction-time measures, and computational and neural models to infer internal representations that cannot be observed directly. Core theoretical concerns include how abstract concepts are encoded, with frameworks such as conceptual metaphor theory proposing that abstract ideas are grounded in concrete, embodied experience. Other central questions address how emotional significance and conflict shape attentional and cognitive control, how working memory and executive function regulate goal-directed action, and how self-monitoring supports the adjustment of behavior over time. Cognitive psychology connects closely with cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and applied domains including education, clinical practice, human factors, and behavior change. Its findings inform interventions that improve learning, memory, and self-management, and they clarify the limits and biases of human reasoning. By formalizing the architecture of cognition, the discipline provides foundational explanations of intelligent behavior in both typical and atypical populations.
Research published in this journal
5 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
Cognitive Mechanism of Emotional Validity Influencing Conflict Control
“That Which is Measured Improves”: A Theoretical and Empirical Review of Self-Monitoring in Self-Management and Adaptive Behavior Change
Psychosomatics: Exploring the Role of the Mind-Body Connection in Causing Physical Illnesses
How Africa Should Engage Ubuntu Ethics and Artificial Intelligence
How this research is being cited
The 5 articles above have been cited 54 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
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2026 · Acta Psychologica
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2026 · Journal of Public Health
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2026 · Internet Interventions
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2026 · Behavior Therapy
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2026 · Journal of School Psychology
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2026 · Child & Youth Care Forum
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2026 · Journal of Language, Literature, and Educational Research
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2026 · South African Journal of Philosophy
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Cognitive Psychology, linking to each citing work.