Cognition 101: How We Acquire Knowledge, Gain Understanding, and Make Decisions

Audio Sample:

Cognitive psychology—the science of how we acquire, process, store, and use information—is essential to understanding the human experience. Yet cognition is such an automatic part of our daily functioning that we rarely take time to acknowledge its complexity.

Now, you can explore the fascinating processes of cognition with the W. H. Laird Professor of Cognitive Science at Carleton College, Kathleen Marie Galotti. The author of two textbooks on cognition as well as the book Making Decisions That Matter: How People Face Important Life Choices, Prof. Galotti is the perfect guide for this behind-the-scenes look at how we tick.

In 12 fascinating audio lectures, Prof. Galotti will take you behind the scenes of higher-order cognitive processes such as problem-solving, creativity, reasoning, and decision making—in other words, how we put information to use.

As you explore the basic cognitive processes of perception, attention, and memory, you’ll see that all human beings—even highly intelligent and motivated ones—have limited cognition. Moreover, our perceptions are limited by our expectations, our current context, and even our cultural background.

By learning with Prof. Galotti, you’ll benefit from her cutting-edge research on cognition, which has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. Best of all, you’ll leave this course with practical, easy-to-apply ways to improve your thinking, reasoning, and decision making.

Learn about downloadable programs.