Learning and cognition

· Learning and cognition focuses on how humans learn, think, make decisions and process information.
· Humans have some innate behaviours, but most complex behaviour depends on learning, cognition, and experience.
· Humans can think about their own thinking: metacognition.
· Exam answers should connect this context to the three approaches: biological, cognitive, and sociocultural explanations.
· Strong answers should use psychological terminology, clear application, and evaluation of bias, causality, measurement, perspective, and responsibility where relevant.

Thinking and learning: core syllabus requirements

· Students must understand cognitive biases, conditioning, dual processing theory, schema theory, and social learning theory.
· These explain how people learn behaviours, organise information, and make decisions.
· In exams, avoid describing theories only; link each theory to behaviour, cognition, or change in behaviour.
· For high marks, apply theory to a named context such as decision-making, memory, attention, learning in school, or behaviour modification.

Conditioning: classical and operant learning

· Classical conditioning = learning by association between stimuli.
· Key idea: a previously neutral stimulus becomes linked with a response after repeated pairing.
· Useful for explaining simple learned responses, especially emotional or automatic reactions.
· Operant conditioning = learning through consequences.
· Key terms: reinforcement increases behaviour; punishment decreases behaviour.
· Positive reinforcement adds a desirable consequence; negative reinforcement removes an unpleasant consequence.
· Application of operant conditioning: changing behaviour through rewards, feedback, consequences, or structured reinforcement.
· Evaluation focus: conditioning can be reductionist if it ignores cognition, motivation, and social context.

This diagram compares classical conditioning and operant conditioning. It helps students distinguish learning by association from learning by consequences. Use it beside notes on conditioning to avoid confusing stimulus-response learning with reinforcement-based behaviour change. Source

Social learning theory

· Social learning theory = people learn by observing others and the consequences of their behaviour.
· Key idea: learning can occur without direct reinforcement, through modelling, imitation, and vicarious reinforcement.
· Useful for explaining how behaviours spread in families, schools, peer groups, media, and cultures.
· Application: can explain and change behaviour by using role models, demonstration, and reinforcement of desired behaviour.
· Evaluation focus: stronger than simple behaviourism because it includes social context and some cognitive processing, but it may still underestimate biological or individual factors.

Schema theory

· Schema theory = knowledge is organised into mental frameworks called schemas.
· Schemas influence what people notice, encode, remember, and interpret.
· Schemas can improve processing efficiency, but may also create memory distortions, biased interpretation, or inaccurate expectations.
· Application: useful for explaining memory, perception, attention, cultural expectations, stereotypes, and prior knowledge effects.
· Evaluation focus: schema theory explains active processing, but schemas are hard to measure directly because they are internal cognitive constructs.

Dual processing theory and cognitive biases

· Dual processing theory explains thinking using two broad systems: fast, automatic processing and slower, controlled processing.
· Fast processing is efficient but more vulnerable to cognitive biases.
· Slower processing is more analytical but requires attention, effort, and cognitive resources.
· Cognitive biases = systematic errors in thinking that influence decision-making.
· Required focus: the role of one or more cognitive biases in decision-making.
· Strong exam link: biases show that cognition is not always rational, objective, or reliable.
· Examples from the syllabus terminology include anchoring bias and confirmation bias.

Cognitive processes: what students must study

· Students must study one or more cognitive processes from: attention, memory, perception, thinking/decision-making, or language.
· For the chosen process, students should understand the role of biological factors, cognitive models, cultural factors, environmental influences, and strategies for improvement.
· Biological factors may include brain structures, neurotransmission, hormones, or other biological influences relevant to the chosen cognitive process.
· Cognitive models simplify and explain how a process works; they help organise research but may oversimplify complex mental activity.
· Cultural factors may shape how people attend to, remember, interpret, or communicate information.
· Environmental influences may affect performance through setting, stress, technology, education, noise, cues, or social context.
· Strategies to improve cognition should be linked to the specific process, such as improving memory, attention, or decision-making.

This diagram shows a cognitive model of memory with separate stages of information processing. It is useful for illustrating how cognitive models simplify complex processes into testable components. Students can use it as an example when discussing the value and limitations of models in cognition. Source

Biological, cultural and environmental factors in cognition

· Strong answers should avoid treating cognition as purely internal; cognition can be influenced by biological, cultural, and environmental factors.
· Biological factors may help explain individual differences in cognitive performance or cognitive change.
· Cultural factors may influence attention, perception, language use, memory strategies, or decision-making norms.
· Environmental factors may influence cognitive processes through learning conditions, distractions, social setting, technology, or stress.
· Evaluation focus: discuss whether evidence shows causation or only correlation, and whether findings are generalizable across cultures and populations.

Improving cognitive processes

· The syllabus requires understanding one or more strategies to improve one or more cognitive processes.
· A strong strategy answer should explain: what is improved, how the strategy works, and evidence for effectiveness.
· Possible improvement targets include memory accuracy, attention control, language learning, decision-making, or learning outcomes.
· Evaluation focus: consider effectiveness, individual differences, ecological validity, measurement, and possible ethical issues.

Research methodology for learning and cognition

· The recommended class practical for this context is an experiment: true experiment or quasi-experiment.
· Common learning and cognition practical examples include Loftus and Palmer (1974) car crash, Masuda and Nisbett (2001) attention, Tversky and Kahneman (1974) anchoring bias, and music and memory/Mozart effect.
· Minimum sample size: 5 participants for repeated measures or 10 participants for independent measures.
· Experimental research is useful because it can control variables and test possible cause-and-effect relationships.
· Key evaluation terms: independent variable, dependent variable, control of extraneous variables, standardized procedure, validity, reliability, sampling bias, and demand characteristics.
· Ethical requirements: informed consent, right to withdraw, protection from harm, debriefing, anonymity, and responsible data protection.

Exam performance tips

· Use the wording of the question: explain, discuss, evaluate, contrast, or to what extent.
· For any theory, include: definition, process, application, study/example, and evaluation.
· For cognitive processes, clearly name the process, e.g. memory, attention, perception, decision-making, or language.
· Link claims to concepts: bias in decision-making, measurement of cognition, causality in experiments, perspective across approaches, and responsibility in ethical research.
· Avoid generic answers: always connect learning/cognition to a specific behaviour, process, or real-world situation.

Best one-line summary

· Learning and cognition examines how people acquire behaviour, organise knowledge, process information, make decisions, and improve cognitive performance, using theories such as conditioning, schema theory, social learning theory, dual processing theory, and models of cognitive processes.