Which best describes the focus of cognitive psychology?

• A. How normal, unimpaired individuals acquire, process, store information, and use it to make decisions and solve problems
• B. Brain injuries and their effects on cognition
• C. Neural imaging of cognitive processes
• D. Clinical treatment of cognitive disorders

Answer: (A)

The focus is on how the mind works in typical, unimpaired individuals—the mental processes that underlie thinking, memory, attention, perception, language, and problem solving. Cognitive psychology investigates how people acquire, process, store, and retrieve information, and how this information is used to make decisions and solve problems. Researchers study these processes through controlled experiments and behavioral data to infer the operations of the mind, rather than focusing on brain damage, brain imaging, or clinical treatment. This emphasis on normal cognitive functioning and the internal operations of the mind is what makes this description the best fit for cognitive psychology.