Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

cognitive psychology
The branch of psychology that focuses on the 
study of higher mental processes, including thinking, language, 
memory, problem solving, knowing, reasoning, judging, and decision 
making.
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What are you thinking about at this moment?
The mere ability to pose such a question underscores the distinctive nature of 
the human ability to think. No other species contemplates, analyzes, recollects, or 
plans the way humans do. Understanding what thinking is, however, goes beyond 
knowing that we think. Philosophers, for example, have argued for generations about 
the meaning of thinking, with some placing it at the core of human beings’ under-
standing of their own existence. 
Psychologists defi ne
 thinking 
as the manipulation of mental representations of 
information. A representation may take the form of a word, a visual image, a sound, 
or data in any other sensory modality stores in memory. Thinking transforms a par-
ticular representation of information into new and different forms, allowing us to 
answer questions, solve problems, or reach goals.
Although a clear sense of what specifi cally occurs when we think remains elu-
sive, our understanding of the nature of the fundamental elements involved in think-
ing is growing. We begin by considering our use of mental images and concepts, the 
building blocks of thought.
thinking
The manipulation of mental 
representations of information.
 Key Concepts 
What is thinking? 
What processes underlie 
reasoning and decision 
making?