Cognitive Psychology

Course Information

• Course Title: Cognitive Psychology
• Course Code: —
• Course Type: Compulsory
• Credit Hours: 3 (2 lecture + 1 lab)
• ECTS: 6
• Language of Instruction: English / Arabic / Kurdish
• Level: Undergraduate – Year 3
• Department: Psychology
• College: Education
• Academic Year: 2025–2026
• Semester: Fall (6th semester)

Course Description

This course introduces students to the scientific study of human cognition, focusing on how people acquire, process, store, and use information. Core cognitive processes such as attention, perception, memory, and language are examined through established theories and empirical findings.

In addition to theoretical instruction, the course includes a light, lecture-hall-based practical component that allows students to experience cognitive processes through structured tasks and simple experiments. These practical activities emphasize observation, performance patterns, and interpretation rather than complex experimental design or advanced statistics.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

1. Identify core cognitive processes and their main theoretical models
2. Explain how cognitive psychology studies mental processes indirectly through performance
3. Perform basic cognitive tasks related to attention, memory, perception, and language
4. Record and compare simple performance measures such as reaction time and accuracy
5. Identify patterns in cognitive performance across different task conditions
6. Interpret cognitive performance using appropriate scientific language
7. Distinguish between observation, interpretation, and proof in cognitive research
8. Understand the limits of inference in cognitive psychology
9. Prepare short practical reports based on hands-on cognitive tasks
10. Present and discuss practical findings in small groups

Weekly Course Schedule

Week	Main Topic	Practical Focus
1	Introduction to Cognitive Psychology	Practical orientation & basics of cognitive experiments
2	Emergence of Cognitive Psychology	Simple information-processing tasks
3	Early Cognitive Experiments (Ebbinghaus)	Memory tasks & forgetting demonstration
4	Attention: Types & Theories	Selective attention tasks (e.g., Stroop-type)
5	External Effects on Attention	Distraction & divided attention tasks
6	Perception	Perceptual organization & illusion tasks
7	Development of Perception	Sensory discrimination activities
8	Midterm Exam	—
9	Internal Effects on Attention	Cognitive load & fatigue tasks
10	Memory: Encoding, Storage, Retrieval	Free recall & recognition tasks
11	Sensory Memory & Short-Term Memory	Digit span & visual memory tasks
12	Student Presentations	Practical task presentations
13	Long-Term Memory	Semantic vs episodic memory tasks
14	Language	Word recognition & sentence processing tasks
15	Student Presentations	Group project presentations
16	Course Review	Integration of theory & practice
17	Final Exam	—

Practical Component Description

Practical sessions are conducted inside the lecture hall, not in the experimental psychology laboratory. Characteristics:

• Short, structured tasks. No complex experimental designs
• No advanced statistics. Focus on group-level patterns, not individual assessment

Each practical activity follows the same logic:

Task → Performance → Pattern → Cognitive Process

Assessment & Evaluation

Component	Weight
Midterm Exam	30%
Final Exam	40%
Practical Activities & Reports	20%
Practical Presentations & Participation	10%
Total	100%

Course Policies

Participation: Active participation in practical sessions is expected. Students may alternate between participant and observer roles

Ethics: Participation in tasks is voluntary. No task involves psychological or physical harm. Individual performance is confidential

Code of Conduct

• Plagiarism, cheating, data fabrication
• Unauthorized collaboration on individual work
• Multiple submission without permission
• Participant well-being is must
• Informed consent is required for all research
• Maintain data confidentiality and integrity