Course Resources Archive

The module will cover basic theories in cognitive psychology and the processes that they describe. This module provides a broad-ranging review of psychological theories and evidence relating to human cognition, problem-solving, decision-making, and judgment in both laboratory and “real- world” contexts.  The factors that influence these capacities are considered in order to promote understanding of the way that this area relates to other aspects of human psychology, including emotion, belief, expertise and socio-cultural factors.  The emphasis of the module will be on how cognitive psychology is used to address, ‘real world’ problems such as human error, decision making and situation awareness.

The module will consist of lectures and practicals covering current research and theory in cognitive psychology, with a particular emphasis on the application of that research in the ‘real world’.  The following topics will be addressed:

Theories and models of reasoning;

Biases in thinking and reasoning (including consideration of the interface between emotion and reasoning; beliefs and reasoning; expertise and reasoning);

Situation awareness;

Human reasoning and decision-making;

Human error;

Creative thinking and reasoning, fantasy and imaginative thought;

Social and cultural factors affecting cognitive processes in the ‘real world’.

A student passing this module should be able to:

1. Demonstrate deep knowledge of theories of cognition.
2. Identify the influences of personal, social and environmental factors on cognition
3. Understand the application of theory to ‘real world’ problems.
4.  Critically evaluate the effectiveness of application.

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.