Duration of the online course: 21 hours and 18 minutes
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Sharpen memory, attention, and decision-making skills with this free online cognitive psychology course—brain-based insights and a shareable certificate option.
In this free course, learn about
Core goals of cognitive psychology and how it studies mental processes scientifically
Key research methods: behavioral experiments, neuroimaging, EEG/ERP, and related measures
History of the field: empiricism, early schools, and the mid-20th-century cognitive revolution
Computer-inspired information-processing models and what they changed in cognitive theory
Neuron basics: synapses, neurotransmission, and how neural signals support cognition
Brain systems in cognition: hippocampus (memory) and corpus callosum (hemisphere transfer)
Cognitive neuroscience logic and limits: reverse inference and why it can be a fallacy
Dual-stream model: ventral 'what' pathway for object identification vs dorsal 'where/how'
Attention: signal detection, selective/divided attention, active search, and task-switch costs
Attention failures: change blindness, inattentional blindness, and neglect implications
Memory models: sensory memory, STM vs working memory, capacity (digit span), interference
Long-term memory: serial position effects, encoding specificity, procedural vs explicit memory
Memory biology and distortion: consolidation, anterograde amnesia, and constructive memory errors
About the free online course
Cognitive psychology explains how the mind turns a flood of sensations into meaning, memories, and actions. In this free online course, you will build a practical understanding of the mental processes that shape everyday life: how we perceive what we see, why attention fails under pressure, how memories are formed and reconstructed, and what biases quietly influence judgments and decisions. Whether you are exploring psychology for the first time or strengthening a foundation for health-related studies, this learning path helps you connect research findings to real situations at home, at work, and in clinical or educational settings.
You will learn how cognitive psychologists ask questions and test answers, from classic experiments to modern cognitive neuroscience tools that link behavior with brain activity. Along the way, you will develop a clearer sense of what brain regions and neural communication contribute to learning and remembering, and why interpreting brain data requires careful reasoning. This perspective can improve how you evaluate claims you see in the media, understand scientific debates, and make sense of why some findings replicate while others do not.
The course also focuses on core skills with immediate value: recognizing the limits of divided attention, spotting perceptual shortcuts that can mislead you, and understanding why memory is not a perfect recording. You will examine how working memory supports thinking in real time, why retrieval matters as much as studying, and how language processing interacts with comprehension, speech, and thought. These insights support better studying, clearer communication, and more informed decision-making.
Because the material blends psychological theory with evidence-based methods, it is especially relevant for anyone interested in health, psychology, education, human factors, or user experience. The included practice questions reinforce key ideas and help you check your understanding as you go. By the end, you will be able to describe how perception, attention, memory, language, and decision processes fit together, and you will have a stronger toolkit for thinking critically about how minds—and brains—work.
Course content
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Overview Pt1 - What Is Cognitive Psych22m
Exercise: What is the primary goal of cognitive psychologists when conducting research?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Overview Pt2 - Methods19m
Exercise: Which research method is commonly used by cognitive psychologists to directly observe and measure brain activity during cognitive tasks?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Overview Pt3 - History29m
Exercise: In the historical context of cognitive psychology, which philosophical tradition emphasizes that knowledge originates primarily from sensory experience?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Overview Pt4 - The Cognitive Revolution22m
Exercise: What aspect of cognitive psychology was influenced by the arrival of computers in the mid-20th century?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience Pt1 - A Neuron Primer26m
Exercise: How do neurons communicate with each other across a synaptic cleft?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience Pt2 - A Brain Primer22m
Exercise: What primary role does the hippocampus play in the brain?
Exercise: What is the reverse inference fallacy in neuroscience research?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Perception Pt1 - Visual Perception24m
Exercise: In the study of visual perception, which part of the brain is primarily responsible for processing visual information?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Perception Pt2 - Perceptual Constancy29m
Exercise: What is the primary reason that we perceive objects as having the same size or shape despite changes in distance or visual angle?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Perception Pt3 - Theories of Perception29m
Exercise: Which theory of perception suggests that we recognize objects by detecting a set of simple features that are combined to form more complex forms?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Perception Pt4 - Top Down Influences27m
Exercise: Which of the following describes the way our brain processes visual information through a combination of sensory input and past experiences?
Exercise: What is the main function of the ventral stream in the neural architecture for perception?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Attention Pt1 - Signal Detection24m
Exercise: In cognitive psychology, which of the following concepts refers to the ability to focus on a specific piece of information while ignoring distractions?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Attention Pt2 - Active Search23m
Exercise: Which of the following best describes the concept of 'active search' as discussed in cognitive psychology?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Attention Pt3 - Selective Attention15m
Exercise: What is the main focus of selective attention as described in cognitive psychology?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Attention Pt4 - Divided Attention28m
Exercise: What is the term used to describe the brief period of decreased ability to detect a target when switching tasks quickly?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Attention Pt5 - Movies and Magic26m
Exercise: In cognitive psychology, what is the term used to describe the phenomenon where a person fails to notice changes in a scene because their attention is focused elsewhere?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Attention Pt6 - Inattention and Neglect29m
Exercise: What does the phenomenon of inattentional blindness demonstrate about human attention?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Memory Pt1 - The Modal Model18m
Exercise: Cognitive psychology explores the role of memory, which is crucial for many functions. What is one reason why our memory system does not store minor details, according to the text?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Memory Pt2 - Sensory Memory31m
Exercise: What is the role of sensory memory in the modal model of memory?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Memory Pt3 - Short Term Memory Duration33m
Exercise: What is the primary reason for memory loss in short-term memory according to the interference theory?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Memory Pt4 - STM Capacity and Coding30m
Exercise: What is the digit span task often used to measure?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Memory Pt5 - Working Memory32m
Exercise: Which of the following best describes the main distinction between short-term memory and working memory?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Long Term Memory Pt1 - Serial Position25m
Exercise: Which is most likely the reason behind the recency effect observed in memory recall tasks?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Long Term Memory Pt2 - Encoding and Retrieval52m
Exercise: Which of the following theories suggests that the effectiveness of memory encoding strategies depends on how information will be retrieved later?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Long Term Memory Pt3 - Types of Long Term Memory47m
Exercise: Which type of long-term memory involves storing skills and tasks that can be performed without conscious recall?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - More About Memory Pt1 - Biology of Memory26m
Exercise: What does the process of memory consolidation primarily involve in cognitive psychology?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - More About Memory Pt2 - Amnesia21m
Exercise: Which type of amnesia is characterized by the inability to form new explicit memories after the occurrence of brain damage?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - More About Memory Pt3 - Memory is Constructed32m
Exercise: Based on cognitive psychology research, which of the following statements about memory is accurate?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Psycholinguistics Pt1 - Language Properties and Speech Sounds46m
Exercise: What is one of the defining properties that distinguishes human language from simple communication used by animals?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Psycholinguistics Pt2 - Word and Sentence Comprehension55m
Exercise: Which cognitive process helps the brain segment spoken language into distinct words?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Psycholinguistics Pt3 - Language Disorders46m
Exercise: What is the primary function of Broca's area in terms of language processing?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Psycholinguistics Pt4 - Language and Thought48m
Exercise: The debate over whether language affects thought has led to the formulation of different hypotheses. Which of the following statements best aligns with the 'weak linguistic relativity' hypothesis?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Psycholinguistics Pt5 - Language in Animals48m
Exercise: Which of the following statements best describes the main challenge in determining whether animals have language?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Judgment and Decision Making Pt1 - Heuristics, Biases, Fallacies57m
Exercise: Which heuristic is often employed when people make probability judgments based on how easily something comes to mind?
Video class: Cognitive Psychology - Judgment and Decision Making Pt2 - Followup to Kahneman Thinking Fast37m
Exercise: What is a key lesson from the replication crisis discussed in cognitive psychology?
This free course includes:
21 hours and 18 minutes of online video course
Digital certificate of course completion (Free)
Exercises to train your knowledge
100% free, from content to certificate
What does a cognitive psychology course cover?
It examines mental processes including perception, attention, memory, language, decision-making, and how the brain supports cognition.
What is the difference between short-term memory and working memory?
Short-term memory briefly holds information, while working memory actively holds and manipulates information during tasks such as reasoning or problem-solving.
What is reverse inference in cognitive neuroscience?
Reverse inference is the mistake of concluding that a specific mental process occurred solely because a brain region associated with that process is active.
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