cognitive science essay topics

129 Cognitive Psychology Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best cognitive psychology topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ most interesting cognitive psychology topics to write about, 📌 simple & easy cognitive psychology essay titles, 👍 good essay topics on cognitive psychology, ❓ cognitive psychology research questions.

• Language in Cognitive Psychology Adult people can preserve 50,000 words of their first language and thousands of words of the second language in the form of lexicons.
• Attention Regarding Cognitive Psychology That a person only pays attention to the stimulus they are interested in and ignore the rest of the stimuli. The study of attention in cognitive psychology is not a new phenomenon. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Cognitive Processes – Psychology As a result, memory is seen to be the storage of, and process of recalling what individuals have learned or experienced in the environment.
• Modern Cognitive Psychology Renaissance philosophers of the seventeenth century attempted to use graphical representations to demonstrate the structure and operations of the human brain.
• Noam Chomsky’s Contribution to Cognitive Psychology Skinner’s initial assumption was that the language is solely a learned behavior, and thus is a set of functional responses to different phenomena. Besides, some progress in evolutionary psychology was possible thanks to the results […]
• Definition of Cognitive Psychology The cognitive theory has been found to be a blend of the human and behavioral theories. Past research shows that the origin of cognitive psychology is in the behavior of a human being.
• Structuralism, Functionalism and Cognitive Theory in Psychology This was done by Ferdinand de Saussure, the French psychologists firmly believed that the theory of Structuralism was not restricted to linguistics alone and later this theory was also applied to various other subjects. Structuralism […]
• Theories of Psychology: Behavioral, Cognitive, Developmental Different theories of psychology have been unveiled from the 20th century. These include behavioral, cognitive, developmental, as well as social psychology theories.
• Cognitive Psychology: Culture and Cognition Information in such a changing environment is on the increase as people try to fit in and be accommodated by the changes.
• Cognitive Psychology: Intelligence and Wisdom Intelligence is the system of evaluating units of knowledge; it is consistently reshuffling knowledge, it is the power of the mind-controlled by the brain, it uses the senses to control actions and reactions, it is […]
• Decision-Making in Cognitive Psychology Any decision-making situation requires a definition of the problem, identification of criteria, assignment of accurate weight to criteria according to preferences, knowledge of the alternatives, assessment of each alternative based on the criteria, and finally, […]
• Cognitive Psychology – A Concept of Attention To illustrate this, when an individual is at the railway station to meet one’s relative, he or she is seeing the faces of many passengers from the train in which the person is going to […]
• Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development – Psychology From birth to about the age of two years, a child goes through the sensorimotor phase of development. In addition, it is possible for some children to demonstrate the overlapping characteristics of the bordering stages […]
• Cognitive Psychology Definition and Concept These methods have been used by psychologists to determine the functionality of the human brain and account for some of the mental processes behind human behavior. It is through studying behavior that psychologists have been […]
• Retrieval Learning in Cognitive Psychology Despite alternative learning strategies and existing limitations to retrieval learning, cognitive psychologists insist on the superiority of retrieval learning over passive restudying in facilitating long-term learning among students.
• Cognitive Psychology: The Effects of Memory Conformity The experiment’s control conditions did not allow the witnesses to discuss the event seen in the videos, while in the other condition, the witnesses were encouraged to discuss the event.
• Application of Cognitive Psychology In conclusion, cognitive learning theories that stem from psychologists’ understanding of human development allow society to significantly improve its education systems and boost the process of knowledge accumulation.
• Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications It is in this stage that a child can develop reasons for the causes and effects of everything in the universe.
• Cognitive Psychology and Attention Deficit Disorder On top of the difficulties in regulating alertness and attention, many individuals with ADD complain of inabilities to sustain effort for duties.
• Cognitive Science: Psychology and Philosophy Many topics that are discussed by the philosophers in psychology are the ones that arise because of the recognition that the philosophers have in cognitive sciences.
• Goals of Cognitive Neuropsychology In particular, it is the study of cognitive effects of neurological illness or brain injury with an aim of inferring normal functioning models of the brain.
• Branch of Psychology Which Called Cognitive Psychology Although psychologists have been studying human behavior and thought processes for a long time the area of cognitive psychology is fairly recent to the field and the most significant year for the development of cognitive […]
• Cognitive Psychology: Endel Tulving’s Study The experiment reported in this paper has been carried out in order to find out how the implicit learning works and how it manifests itself in the performance of the experiment participants over the number […]
• Cognitive Psychology: Term Definition The theory of Gestalt psychology combines the mind and brain and follows the principle that the whole differs form the sum of its parts.
• Cognitive Psychology: The Science of How We Think Learning of cognitive psychology in schools can have a wide impact on the students since it’s through cognitive psychology that we are in a position to know the nature of our emotions, feelings, thoughts, and […]
• Cognitive Psychology: Phineas Gage’s Brain Injury The study of the sensory systems that is the vision led to the discovery that a lot of the processing was carried out by the system itself.
• Cognitive Psychology: Creativity: A Social Approach It is the same creative power that caused the Western Union to lose a golden chance to be the patent holder of Bell’s invention.
• Cognitive Psychology: Brain Processes Information The study of the ways in which the brain processes information is called cognitive psychology. Behavioral observation is an important tool in the arsenal of cognitive psychology research.
• Developmental Psychology: Cognitive Theories For Piaget the human psyche was the only evolutionary product that performed the function of balancing the human being with the world, and was and instrument of adaptation to the environment.
• Cognitive Psychology and Learning The questions on the problem of getting the children to work and unify the class is definitely related to the matter of individual approach to every child, and of course concerning the matters of remembering […]
• Cognitive Psychology: Linguistic Structure in Language Processing Language cognition is always pedagogic and there are basically two reasons for not pressing for the pedagogic turn in the study of language and cognition.
• Applied Cognitive Psychology in the Classroom Since the 20th century, there has been a growing interest in the issue of cognitive psychology and the functioning of the human brain.
• Cognitive Psychology: Memory and Interferences For instance, I remember how to organize words in the right way to form a sentence and I know the capitals of countries.
• Cognitive Psychology: Clarkston Industries Company’ Case This is one of the arguments that she can put forward to justify her decision about Jack’s status in the company.
• Psychology: Intuition as a Cognitive Bias Such enthusiasm was erroneous, and since I caught that bias, I have tried not to rely on the regularity of cases.
• Educational Psychology: Cognitive Development in Children Throughout the process of learning, I have paid close attention to the peculiarities of Piaget’s theory and realized the cornerstones of human development.
• Cognitive Psychology: Scientists Contributions Wundt’s published the groundbreaking book “Principles of Physiological Psychology” in 1879 and he was the first person to refer to psychology as a unique field of study.
• Cognitive Perception Processes – Psychology In the context of the reading process, the specified element can be defined as the acquisition of sensory information and the relation of the information acquired to the phenomena and concepts that they denote.
• Cognitive Psychology Development Important Milestones This model is based on the assumption that the functioning of the brain can be compared to the work of a computer.
• Cognitive Functions of the Brain – Psychology The case of Phineas Gage attracts the attention of many scientists because it illustrates the effects of the severe injury on the cognitive processes of an individual. One can also refer to the evidence indicating […]
• Cognitive Psychology Evolution Aspects This essay is also going to study the interdisciplinary perspective of cognition and the history cognitive psychology. The evolutionary approach explicates the forces of selection that was dominant in our ancestors and the forces have […]
• Cognitive Psychology Definition Concepts The struggle to adopt new and substantive theories to explain cognitive psychology continued even up to the end of the 19th century.
• Theory of Cognitive Development – Psychology The sensorimotor stage is the first phase of cognitive development. The cognitive development theory by Piaget is a clear indication of how children swiftly transform themselves from one stage to another.
• Evolution of Cognitive Psychology The study of the mind contributed to the publication of the first textbook in cognitive psychology by Ulric Neisser, and the emergence of a group of scientists interested in investigating human perception, thinking, attention, language, […]
• Cognitive Psychology – Decision Making Sijun et al.points to the argument that in a perfectly static world the necessity of making a decision would not be necessary due to the unchanging nature of both people and the environment, however, since […]
• Concept of Cognitive Development in Psychology Various studies show that the human memory develops and changes with the age of an individual. The physical growth of the brain affects the behavioral changes throughout the growth process.
• Cognitive Psychology and Application to Learning Instruction The theory suggests that the sum of the parts interferes with the visual recognition of figures in individuals since the whole would always take precedence, as compared to the simple contours and arcs.
• Social Psychology: Cognitive Dissonance As a result of such a viewpoint, people from minorities are often cast with a significant level of suspicion which limits their capacity to be employed in some areas due to the manner in which […]
• Cognitive Psychology on Driving and Phone Usage For this reason, it is quite difficult to multitask when the activities involved are driving and talking on the phone. Holding a phone when driving may cause the driver to use only one hand for […]
• Humanist Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and Positive Psychology Proponents of the humanist psychology perceived cognitive psychology as a fragmented part of the human psychology and therefore they developed the concept of humanist psychology to be more holistic and analytical of the human psychology […]
• Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience There is an eminent application of scientific metaphors in describing the functioning of the human brain. There are outstanding metaphors and analogies, which are being used to explain the functioning of the human brain.
• How Do the Research Findings of Cognitive, Developmental and Social Psychology Apply to Real World Issues? Research in development psychology has also aided in predicting interpersonal relationships and moral reasoning with regard to the stage of development that a person is in.
• Cognitive Psychology as a Neurological Framework
• History Of Educational Psychology – Emergence Of Cognitive Psychology
• The Cognitive Psychology Behind the Movie 21 Jump Street
• Cognitive Psychology and the Transference of Knowledge During Problem Solving
• Science of Cognitive Psychology and Analytical Psychology
• Historical Milestones in Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology And Its Effects On The Brain
• Physical and Cognitive Changes during Different Stages of Development in Cognitive Psychology
• Behaviorism vs. Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology of Science: Recent Research and Its Implications
• Cognitive Psychology and Language Development
• The Evolution Of Cognitive Psychology
• Summary Of Cognitive Psychology, Perception, Attention, Pattern Recognition, Consciousness And Memory
• Jean Piaget and Cognitive Psychology
• An Evaluation of the Contributions of Cognitive Psychology
• Historical Development Of The Field Of Cognitive Psychology
• Theories and Experiments About Cognitive Psychology
• Some Implications Of Cognitive Psychology For Risk Regulation
• Intelligence, Cognitive, And Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology’s Perspective on Physical and Mental Changes During the Period of Development
• Cognitive Psychology Language and Perceptual Devlopment
• Cognitive Psychology and the View of Distinctness
• Cognitive Psychology: Prototype and Causal Based Theories of Category Formation
• An Analysis of Development Learning and Cognitive Psychology
• Chomsky ‘s Influence On Cognitive Psychology
• Category Formation, Causal Theories, and Cognitive Psychology
• How Cognitive Psychology Can Be Used To Understand The Body And Mind Processes
• Contribution of Cognitive psychology to the Study of Behavior
• Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Cognitive Psychology
• Influences In The Discipline Of Cognitive Psychology
• To What Extent Did the Legacy of Behaviourism Shape the Development of Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology and Views of Nature and Madness
• The Effect Of Color On Visual Perception Of Cognitive Psychology
• Academic and Career Objectives in Neuro-Cognitive Psychology
• Elizabeth Loftus: An Expert In Cognitive Psychology
• The Theories, Concepts and Models in Cognitive Psychology Is Visible in Our Everyday Lives
• Creativity and Cognitive Psychology
• Problem Solving, Knowledge Transference, and Cognitive Psychology
• The Development of Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology And Our Understanding Of Human Mind
• Comparing Behaviorism And Cognitive Psychology
• The Current State of Cognitive Psychology
• Aspects of Cognitive Psychology
• Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology
• Memory and Learning and Cognitive Psychology
• Language and Cognitive Psychology
• Connections Between Nature, Madness, and Cognitive Psychology
• What Is Cognitive Psychology?
• How Does Cognitive Psychology Affect Your Life?
• What Was the State of Cognitive Psychology in 1967?
• How Can Cognitive Psychology Be Used to Understand the Body and Mind Processes?
• Can video games help children with special needs?
• How Does Cognitive Psychology With Cognitive Restructuring Impact Rape Victims?
• How Did Behaviorism Affect Research on the Mind?
• Can Playing Video Games Improve Cognition?
• How Has Children’s Attention Spans Changed For the Past Fifty Years?
• Are Positive Emotions Direct Consequence of or Contributors to Happiness?
• How Does Loss of Hearing and Dependency on Hearing Aids Impact Men and Women in the UK?
• Does Talking To Oneself and Self-Counseling Affect Memory Retrieval?
• How Does Culture and Social Support Impact People With Depression in the UK?
• What Are the Effects of Attention Deficit or Hyperactivity Disorder on the Development of a Child?
• How Is Color Psychology Effective in Cognitive Development Studies?
• What Is the Attention Span, and How to Measure It?
• How Do Memories Affect the Behavior of Individuals?
• What Is Critical Thinking, and How to Measure Its Ability in Cognitive Psychology?
• Is Single Parenting Suitable for a Child’s Mental Development?
• How Can Theories Relating to Cognitive Psychology Be Used in Marketing?
• What Are Ethical Problems Related to Carrying Out Research Into Cognitive Psychology?
• Can Cognitive Psychology Experiments Be Used to Measure the Critical Thinking Ability?
• How Does Cognitive Psychology Explain Human Behavior?
• Is Cognitive Perspective Nature or Nurture?
• How Does Cognitive Psychology Affect Decision-Making?
• What Are the Key Issues in Cognitive Psychology?
• How Does Cognitive Development Affect Learning?
• Is the Cognitive Approach Free Will or Determinism?
• How Did Cognitive Psychology Develop?
• What Are the Most Common Cognitive Biases?
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Cognitive Science

Senior essays.

This page lists all of the senior projects from previous cognitive science majors, organized by year. If a project title is blue, you may click on it to download a PDF of it. For current majors, you can find a guide to research and the senior thesis at this link .

CLASS OF 2022 

Class of 2020 , class of 2019 , class of 2018 , class of 2017, class of 2016, class of 2015, class of 2014, class of 2013, class of 2012, class of 2011, class of 2010, class of 2009.

How Cognitive Science Supersedes Behaviorism

This essay about cognitive science surpassing behaviorism uses a metaphorical narrative to compare the evolution of psychological theories to the rise and interaction of two kingdoms. It describes behaviorism as a doctrine that emphasized observable behaviors and external stimuli, largely ignoring the internal mental processes that cognitive science later sought to understand. The essay highlights how cognitive science incorporates multiple disciplines like neuroscience and artificial intelligence to explore and explain the complexities of the human mind, including thoughts, memories, and perceptions. It notes the practical applications of cognitive science in fields like education and therapy, where a deeper understanding of cognitive processes has led to more effective strategies for teaching and mental health treatment. Additionally, the essay touches on how advancements in technology have enhanced our ability to analyze and interpret human cognition and behavior, showing the breadth and depth of cognitive science as a critical evolution beyond the constraints of behaviorism.

How it works

Once upon a time, in the world of psychology, there was a kingdom ruled by Behaviorism. This realm was mapped out with precision, where actions were seen as predictable paths determined by external treasures and threats. The behaviorists, with their leader B.F. Skinner at the helm, charted human actions as if they were mere reactions to the environment, akin to a dance where the steps were set by rewards and consequences.

Then, from the horizon, a new kingdom emerged, rich in complexity and depth: the land of Cognitive Science.

This realm didn’t just gaze at the dance of actions but peered deeply into the dancers’ minds, seeking to understand the melodies and rhythms that moved them. Cognitive Science, unlike its predecessor, wove together threads from diverse disciplines—psychology’s insight, neuroscience’s revelations, and artificial intelligence’s innovations—to craft a more intricate tapestry of human nature.

Behaviorism’s gaze was locked on the visible, the outward actions. It held that the keys to understanding behavior lay in the external, observable world. The mind, with its thoughts, memories, and desires, was like a locked chest thrown into the sea—out of sight and irrelevant. Cognitive Science, however, embarked on a voyage to retrieve that chest, unlock it, and map the treasures inside. It posited that to truly comprehend why a person moves through life in the ways they do, one must explore the unseen—thoughts, memories, perceptions, and the very architecture of the brain.

In this new kingdom, scientists didn’t just ask how a person reacted to a stimulus, but why. They discovered that the brain was not a simple mirror, reflecting the external world, but rather a complex filter, interpreting, shaping, and sometimes even distorting the inputs it received. The study of memory, for example, revealed not a static storage room but a dynamic workshop where memories were constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed.

Moreover, Cognitive Science’s curiosity led to the discovery of how intertwined our cognitive processes are with our physical brain structure, challenging the behaviorist view that saw the brain as a black box, irrelevant to understanding behavior. Advances in neuroimaging painted a picture of the brain as a living, breathing map, with regions lighting up in a choreographed dance as we think, dream, and desire.

This new kingdom didn’t just stop at understanding; it sought to apply its wisdom. In education, it transformed teaching from a process of depositing information into passive minds to an interactive journey, considering how the mind processes and retains new knowledge. In therapy, it provided keys to unlock patterns of thought that held individuals in chains, offering paths to rewire their inner landscapes for healthier living.

And as the realms of technology advanced, Cognitive Science employed its tools—artificial intelligence and machine learning—not as mere mimics of human intelligence but as lenses to magnify and explore the vast complexity of the human mind. These tools, once thought to belong to the realm of science fiction, are now indispensable in deciphering the vast data generated by studies on cognition and behavior.

Thus, the kingdom of Cognitive Science did not simply supersede the land of Behaviorism; it expanded the map of human understanding, revealing not just paths of behavior, but the vast, rich lands of the mind that guide each journey. This narrative has woven through the dense forests of intellect and over the mountains of discipline to tell a tale of progress, from the observable to the understood, from the external to the internal, from Behaviorism to Cognitive Science.

Cite this page

How Cognitive Science Supersedes Behaviorism. (2024, Apr 14). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/how-cognitive-science-supersedes-behaviorism/

"How Cognitive Science Supersedes Behaviorism." PapersOwl.com , 14 Apr 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/how-cognitive-science-supersedes-behaviorism/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). How Cognitive Science Supersedes Behaviorism . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/how-cognitive-science-supersedes-behaviorism/ [Accessed: 18 Apr. 2024]

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"How Cognitive Science Supersedes Behaviorism," PapersOwl.com , 14-Apr-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/how-cognitive-science-supersedes-behaviorism/. [Accessed: 18-Apr-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). How Cognitive Science Supersedes Behaviorism . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/how-cognitive-science-supersedes-behaviorism/ [Accessed: 18-Apr-2024]

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The Foundations of Cognitive Science

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The Foundations of Cognitive Science is a set of thirteen new essays on key topics in this lively interdisciplinary field, by a stellar international line-up of authors. Philosophers, psychologists, and neurologists here come together to investigate such fascinating subjects as consciousness; vision; rationality; artificial life; the neural basis of language, cognition, and emotion; and the relations between mind and world, for instance our representation of numbers and space. The contributors are Ned Block, Margaret Boden, Susan Carey, Patricia Churchland, Paul Churchland, Antonio Damasio, Hanna Damasio, Donald Davidson, Daniel Dennett, Ilya Farber, James Higginbotham, Christopher Peacocke, Will Peterman, Zenon Pylyshyn, John Searle. Anyone interested in the exploration of the human mind will enjoy this book.

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Researching Your Cognitive Science Essays

Find the books, articles and other sources you need to write an excellent essay on your topic in Cognitive Science.

Online Handbooks & Encyclopedias

Start your research with a handbook or encyclopedia to get an overview of a topic. Try these (from U of T Libraries):

• The Cambridge handbook of cognitive development (2022)
• The Cambridge handbook of intelligence and cognitive neuroscience (2021)
• The Oxford handbook of developmental cognitive neuroscience (2020)
• The Oxford handbook of ethics of AI (2020)
• The Routledge international handbook of thinking and reasoning (2018)
• The Routledge handbook of consciousness (2018)
• The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Science (2017)
• The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Neuroscience (2014)
• The Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition (2014)
• The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence (2014)
• The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Cognitive Science (2012)
• The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics (2010)
• Encyclopedia of Consciousness (2009)

The UC Library has a modest but growing collection of cognitive science books. Click the link below to find UC Library books in the U of T Library catalogue. Then you can refine your search to be more specific, or expand your search to include other U of T libraries and ebooks.

Cognitive science

Article Databases

The following databases (from U of T Libraries) include articles related to cognitive science:

• ACM Digital Library (Association for Computing Machinery)
• CogNet (MIT)
• Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)
• Philosopher's Index

Research Guides (Created by U of T Librarians)

Here are some research guides in fields related to cognitive science, created by U of T librarians:

• Computer Science research guide
• Linguistics research guide
• Philosophy research guide
• Psychology research guide

General Research Tips

Friendly advice from the UC librarian that applies to any field of study.

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How to learn better

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Applying cognitive science principles in the science classroom could be the route to better teaching and learning

Source: © Yenpitsu Nemoto/Ikon Images

Illustration of a small man in a larger man’s head sorting different coloured balls

In essence, cognitive science is the study of thought, learning and memory. It draws together neuroscience, anthropology and computational modelling to understand how the mind works: how it responds to stimuli, manages tasks, makes decisions and creates memories. It can help us discern how learning and recall happen, and how to improve them. Through its findings, cognitive science also challenges some common aspects of teaching practice, and suggests new paths to more effective education. Let’s look at some ways it can help your teaching.

How is cognitive science studied?

To build their predictions, cognitive scientists draw evidence from lab-based control trials just as you’d find in medical research, as well as finding verification in neuroscientific investigations and making projections through computational modelling. To see if these theories hold true, studies then move to real-world classrooms.

Is cognitive science ready for the classroom?

The idea of teaching in a way that lets students absorb information more efficiently is attractive, so it’s no surprise that cognitive science has quickly found a home in education, but is your own classroom ready for it? There are certainly warnings about its implementation. For instance, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)’s recent summary was positive overall, but found there was still cause for hesitation around some of cognitive science’s ideas.

To start with, some of the evidence that cognitive science provides is not yet robust enough and therefore its success is uncertain in practice. What’s more, there are issues around the replication of studies outside of the laboratory and especially attempts to replicate successes when scaling up to larger groups.

Poor implementation can also be dangerous. When individuals try to implement an idea without fully understanding it, at best it can be non-effective and at worst, harmful to learning; results can suffer, and teacher workloads increase.

What can we take from cognitive science?

When assessing new practices or ideas, it’s important to distinguish between positive and negative claims. The positive claims of cognitive science specify what you should do in the classroom, and negative claims state what you shouldn’t . With the nature of these studies, positive claims should only count as a progressive rule of thumb rather than definitive advice. For negative claims there is, to my mind, greater certainty, but these, too, should be taken in context.

Teaching tips from cognitive science

Here are some of the positive claims that cognitive science makes about efficient learning. Each negative claim specifies something to avoid in teaching, but offers a positive rule of thumb or ‘best guess, given the evidence’ about what we should do instead.

Discovery learning is not beneficial for novice students

When I trained as a teacher, I was fully convinced that students learned best by discovering things for themselves – that being taught something explicitly was less effective. Cognitive science categorically refutes this position. First, it says there is no privileged status for self-taught concepts versus taught concepts. Second, it tells us that when we are novices, our minds can become quickly overloaded with new information . So unstructured discovery learning, or inquiry-based learning, almost always features too much information for a novice to adequately process.

Try this instead: As the teacher, take the content your students need to learn and carefully break it apart , introducing it slowly, piece by piece, in order to not overload them.

A plenary is not proof of learning

Cognitive science casts doubt on the practice of mini plenaries as proof of learning. With some consideration, this makes perfect sense. When you go for a jog, you might do so to break your personal best. That’s a short-term goal. However, if you jog to get fit, it’s a long-term goal. Nobody would ever say you are now fit after the jog, because this can only be judged successfully over a longer period.

Learning is like getting fit, and cognitive scientists say it is something we can only judge over the long term. Do students remember information two weeks, two months or two years later? If not, learning has been unsuccessful. That means we can’t judge whether learning has happened in the short term; just as you wouldn’t claim to be at peak fitness after one jog. We can’t teach something or do a mini plenary and think learning has happened. Punctuating a lesson to check student understanding is beneficial, but it doesn’t prove they have learned. For that, you need to take a much longer-term approach, repeatedly quizzing students on old learning points and incorporating them into your assessments.

Try this instead: Use long-term approaches to assess if learning was successful.

Students don’t learn according to a particular style

Learning style theories maintain that different people learn in fundamentally different ways. Some people might learn best visually, others kinaesthetically and so on. Cognitive science shows that this is not the case , and the mechanism by which we all learn is roughly the same. Of course, there are differences between individuals, but these are generally a matter of degree: if one student knows more chemistry than another, they’ll be better able to learn even more chemistry. Crucially, though, this is not a qualitative difference – they are not fundamentally better at learning chemistry on some genetic or cognitive level.

Try this instead: Consider prior knowledge as the most important difference between your students when planning lessons.

Fractured teaching leads to poor learning

Here’s an example of a traditional approach to learning and assessment: teach A > revision lesson on A > exam on A > teach B > revision lesson on B > exam on B > repeat for CDE > year-end exam on ABCDE. Cognitive science has shown that this approach is not effective over the long term.

Cramming content immediately before an exam is effective in terms of passing that exam, but the memories vanish shortly after, leading to a stop-start model of learning and a lack of build-up over time. Instead, revisiting past material should be spaced out , so students can look at content repeatedly over many weeks and months.

Try this instead: Embed revisiting into your practice, ensuring that students are given regular opportunities to look back at past material.

Remember, context is king

Cognitive science has the potential to revolutionise our classrooms and help our students develop into brilliant chemists. But while its negative claims might be definitive, the suggestions for improvement are not cast-iron rules. They’re principles that should be embedded in your teaching. You are still the most important driver for your students’ success, because cognitive learning’s evidence base will never perfectly prescribe what you should do with year 9 on a rainy Thursday afternoon.

More from Adam Boxer

Why I don’t use video to explain chemistry concepts

How to ensure students listen intently

Managing behaviour beyond the classroom

• Active learning
• Cognitive load
• Education research
• Higher-order thinking and metacognition
• Learning styles
• Misconceptions

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What Is Cognitive Psychology?

The Science of How We Think

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Topics in Cognitive Psychology

• Current Research
• Cognitive Approach in Practice

Careers in Cognitive Psychology

How cognitive psychology differs from other branches of psychology, frequently asked questions.

Cognitive psychology involves the study of internal mental processes—all of the workings inside your brain, including perception, thinking, memory, attention, language, problem-solving, and learning.

Cognitive psychology--the study of how people think and process information--helps researchers understand the human brain. It also allows psychologists to help people deal with psychological difficulties.

This article discusses what cognitive psychology is, the history of this field, and current directions for research. It also covers some of the practical applications for cognitive psychology research and related career options you might consider.

Findings from cognitive psychology help us understand how people think, including how they acquire and store memories. By knowing more about how these processes work, psychologists can develop new ways of helping people with cognitive problems.

Cognitive psychologists explore a wide variety of topics related to thinking processes. Some of these include: 

• Attention --our ability to process information in the environment while tuning out irrelevant details
• Choice-based behavior --actions driven by a choice among other possibilities
• Decision-making
• Information processing
• Language acquisition --how we learn to read, write, and express ourselves
• Problem-solving
• Speech perception -how we process what others are saying
• Visual perception --how we see the physical world around us

History of Cognitive Psychology

Although it is a relatively young branch of psychology , it has quickly grown to become one of the most popular subfields. Cognitive psychology grew into prominence between the 1950s and 1970s.

Prior to this time, behaviorism was the dominant perspective in psychology. This theory holds that we learn all our behaviors from interacting with our environment. It focuses strictly on observable behavior, not thought and emotion. Then, researchers became more interested in the internal processes that affect behavior instead of just the behavior itself. 

This shift is often referred to as the cognitive revolution in psychology. During this time, a great deal of research on topics including memory, attention, and language acquisition began to emerge. 

In 1967, the psychologist Ulric Neisser introduced the term cognitive psychology, which he defined as the study of the processes behind the perception, transformation, storage, and recovery of information.

Cognitive psychology became more prominent after the 1950s as a result of the cognitive revolution.

Current Research in Cognitive Psychology

The field of cognitive psychology is both broad and diverse. It touches on many aspects of daily life. There are numerous practical applications for this research, such as providing help coping with memory disorders, making better decisions , recovering from brain injury, treating learning disorders, and structuring educational curricula to enhance learning.

Current research on cognitive psychology helps play a role in how professionals approach the treatment of mental illness, traumatic brain injury, and degenerative brain diseases.

Thanks to the work of cognitive psychologists, we can better pinpoint ways to measure human intellectual abilities, develop new strategies to combat memory problems, and decode the workings of the human brain—all of which ultimately have a powerful impact on how we treat cognitive disorders.

The field of cognitive psychology is a rapidly growing area that continues to add to our understanding of the many influences that mental processes have on our health and daily lives.

From understanding how cognitive processes change as a child develops to looking at how the brain transforms sensory inputs into perceptions, cognitive psychology has helped us gain a deeper and richer understanding of the many mental events that contribute to our daily existence and overall well-being.

The Cognitive Approach in Practice

In addition to adding to our understanding of how the human mind works, the field of cognitive psychology has also had an impact on approaches to mental health. Before the 1970s, many mental health treatments were focused more on psychoanalytic , behavioral , and humanistic approaches.

The so-called "cognitive revolution" put a greater emphasis on understanding the way people process information and how thinking patterns might contribute to psychological distress. Thanks to research in this area, new approaches to treatment were developed to help treat depression, anxiety, phobias, and other psychological disorders .

Cognitive behavioral therapy and rational emotive behavior therapy are two methods in which clients and therapists focus on the underlying cognitions, or thoughts, that contribute to psychological distress.

What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an approach that helps clients identify irrational beliefs and other cognitive distortions that are in conflict with reality and then aid them in replacing such thoughts with more realistic, healthy beliefs.

If you are experiencing symptoms of a psychological disorder that would benefit from the use of cognitive approaches, you might see a psychologist who has specific training in these cognitive treatment methods.

These professionals frequently go by titles other than cognitive psychologists, such as psychiatrists, clinical psychologists , or counseling psychologists , but many of the strategies they use are rooted in the cognitive tradition.

Many cognitive psychologists specialize in research with universities or government agencies. Others take a clinical focus and work directly with people who are experiencing challenges related to mental processes. They work in hospitals, mental health clinics, and private practices.

Research psychologists in this area often concentrate on a particular topic, such as memory. Others work directly on health concerns related to cognition, such as degenerative brain disorders and brain injuries.

Treatments rooted in cognitive research focus on helping people replace negative thought patterns with more positive, realistic ones. With the help of cognitive psychologists, people are often able to find ways to cope and even overcome such difficulties.

Reasons to Consult a Cognitive Psychologist

• Alzheimer's disease, dementia, or memory loss
• Brain trauma treatment
• Cognitive therapy for a mental health condition
• Interventions for learning disabilities
• Perceptual or sensory issues
• Therapy for a speech or language disorder

Whereas behavioral and some other realms of psychology focus on actions--which are external and observable--cognitive psychology is instead concerned with the thought processes behind the behavior. Cognitive psychologists see the mind as if it were a computer, taking in and processing information, and seek to understand the various factors involved.

A Word From Verywell

Cognitive psychology plays an important role in understanding the processes of memory, attention, and learning. It can also provide insights into cognitive conditions that may affect how people function.

Being diagnosed with a brain or cognitive health problem can be daunting, but it is important to remember that you are not alone. Together with a healthcare provider, you can come up with an effective treatment plan to help address brain health and cognitive problems.

Your treatment may involve consulting with a cognitive psychologist who has a background in the specific area of concern that you are facing, or you may be referred to another mental health professional that has training and experience with your particular condition.

Ulric Neisser is considered the founder of cognitive psychology. He was the first to introduce the term and to define the field of cognitive psychology. His primary interests were in the areas of perception and memory, but he suggested that all aspects of human thought and behavior were relevant to the study of cognition.

A cognitive map refers to a mental representation of an environment. Such maps can be formed through observation as well as through trial and error. These cognitive maps allow people to orient themselves in their environment.

While they share some similarities, there are some important differences between cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology. While cognitive psychology focuses on thinking processes, cognitive neuroscience is focused on finding connections between thinking and specific brain activity. Cognitive neuroscience also looks at the underlying biology that influences how information is processed.

Cognitive psychology is a form of experimental psychology. Cognitive psychologists use experimental methods to study the internal mental processes that play a role in behavior.

Sternberg RJ, Sternberg K. Cognitive Psychology . Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. 

Krapfl JE. Behaviorism and society . Behav Anal. 2016;39(1):123-9. doi:10.1007/s40614-016-0063-8

Cutting JE. Ulric Neisser (1928-2012) . Am Psychol . 2012;67(6):492. doi:10.1037/a0029351

Ruggiero GM, Spada MM, Caselli G, Sassaroli S. A historical and theoretical review of cognitive behavioral therapies: from structural self-knowledge to functional processes .  J Ration Emot Cogn Behav Ther . 2018;36(4):378-403. doi:10.1007/s10942-018-0292-8

Parvin P. Ulric Neisser, cognitive psychology pioneer, dies . Emory News Center.

APA Dictionary of Psychology. Cognitive map . American Psychological Association.

Forstmann BU, Wagenmakers EJ, Eichele T, Brown S, Serences JT. Reciprocal relations between cognitive neuroscience and formal cognitive models: opposites attract? . Trends Cogn Sci . 2011;15(6):272-279. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2011.04.002

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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Cognitive Science

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• Summary of Requirements

Director of undergraduate studies: Joshua Knobe , 102 C, 432-1699; www.yale.edu/cogsci

Cognitive science explores the nature of cognitive processes such as perception, reasoning, memory, attention, language, decision making, imagery, motor control, and problem solving. The goal of cognitive science, stated simply, is to understand how the mind works. Cognitive science is an inherently interdisciplinary endeavor, drawing on tools and ideas from fields such as psychology, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, economics, and neuroscience. Approaches include empirical studies of the ontogenetic and phylogenetic development of cognitive abilities, experimental work on cognitive processing in adults, attempts to understand perception and cognition based on patterns of breakdown in pathology, computational and robotic research that strives to simulate aspects of cognition and behavior, neuroscientific investigations of the neural bases of cognition using neural recording and brain scanning, and the development of philosophical theories of the nature of mind.

Prerequisite

An introductory survey course, CGSC 110 , is normally taken by the end of the fall term of the sophomore year and prior to admission to the major.

Requirements of the Major 

The requirements of the major for the B.S. and B.A. degrees are the same, except for the skills requirement and the senior requirement. Fourteen term courses, for a total of thirteen and one half course credits, are required for the major, including the introductory course and the senior requirement. Each major program must include the elements described below. The particular selection of courses must be approved by the director of undergraduate studies (DUS) in order to assure overall coherence. No course may be used to fulfill more than one requirement for the major.

Breadth requirement  A breadth requirement introduces students to the subfields of cognitive science. Each major is required to take a course from four of the following six areas:

1. Computer science: CPSC 201

2. Economics and decision making: ECON 159

3. Linguistics: LING 110 , 116 , 130 , 217 , 232 , 253

4. Neuroscience: CGSC 201 , MCDB 320 , NSCI 340 , PSYC 160 , 270   

5. Philosophy: PHIL 126 , 182 , 269 , 270 , 271

6. Psychology: PSYC 110 , S139E , 140

Depth requirement  Students fulfill a depth requirement by completing six courses that focus on a specific topic or area in cognitive science. The depth courses must be chosen from at least two disciplines, and are typically drawn from the six cognitive science subfields. It may be possible to draw depth courses from other fields when necessary to explore the student's focal topic, in consultation with the DUS. All six depth courses must be intermediate or advanced; for most disciplines, courses numbered 300 or above fulfill the requirement. With permission of the DUS, up to two directed reading or research courses may count toward the depth requirement.

Skills requirement  Because formal techniques are fundamental to cognitive science, one skills course is required, preferably before the senior year. The suggested skills requirement for the B.S. degree is PSYC 200 , or any courses listed as fulfilling the B.A. degree, or with permission of the DUS. Courses that fulfill the skills requirement for the B.A. degree include CPSC 112 , 202 , LING 224 , PSYC 200 ,  PSYC 270 ,  S&DS 100 , 103 ,  106 ,  220 ,  230 , and  S107E . Other courses may fulfill this requirement with the permission of the DUS. 

Junior colloquium  In the junior year, students are required to take CGSC 395 , a half-credit colloquium in which majors discuss current issues and research in cognitive science and select a senior essay topic.

Repeat for credit  Only one term of CGSC 471 , 472 , 473 , or 474 may be offered toward the major. 

Credit/D/Fail  Courses taken Credit/D/Fail may not be counted toward the requirements of the major, except with permission of the DUS.

Senior Requirement 

In the senior year, students take CGSC 491 , a full-credit capstone course in which the senior essay is written. Students in the course meet regularly with one another and with the faculty to discuss current work in cognitive science and their own developing research projects. Students must take this course during their last spring term at Yale. If spring is not the student's final term, (e.g., a planned December graduation date), then it is possible to attend the class and complete some of the assignments, but not turn in the finished thesis until November. In this case, a grade of INC will be given for the Spring term. (Unlike other incomplete grades at Yale, an incomplete for a thesis does not expire.)

B.S. degree program  The B.S. degree is typically awarded to students who conduct empirical research as part of their senior requirement. This normally includes designing an experiment and collecting and analyzing data.

B.A. degree program  The B.A. degree is typically awarded to students who conduct a nonempirical senior essay. There are no restrictions on the research format for the B.A.

Advising and Application to the Major 

Students may apply to enter the major at any point after the first year. Applications must be made in writing to the DUS. Applications must include (1) an official or unofficial transcript of work at Yale, (2) a brief statement of purpose, which indicates academic interests and expected focus within the areas of the Cognitive Science major, and (3) a list of the six upper-level courses that the student plans to take as part of the research focus. Application forms and answers to frequently asked questions are available on the program website .

SUMMARY OF MAJOR REQUIREMENTS

Prerequisite  CGSC 110

Number of courses  14 term courses, for a total of 13.5 course credits (incl prereq and senior req)

Specific course required  CGSC 395

Distribution of courses  1 course each in 4 of 6 subfields, as specified for breadth req; 6 courses in a specific topic or area, as specified for depth req; 1 skills course, as specified

Senior requirement   B.S.—e mpirical research and senior essay in CGSC 491 ; B.A. —nonempirical senior essay in CGSC 491

Prerequisite  

R equirements  

B.S. Cognitive Science    

14 term courses ( 13.5 credits ) including prereq uisite  a nd senior req uirement  

Breadth requirement (4 from the following 6 areas of study)  

Computer Science: CPSC 201  

Economics and Decision Making: ECON 159  

Linguistics: LING 110 , 116 ,  130 , 217 , 232 , 253  

Neuroscience: CGSC 201 , MCDB 320 , NSCI 340 ,  PSYC 160 , PSYC 270  

Philosophy: PHIL 126 , 182 , 269 , 270 , 271  

Psychology: PSYC 110 , S139E , 140  

Depth requirement  

6 courses on a specific area of study, selected from at least two areas of study and at the intermediate-to-advanced level (300 or higher)  

Junior Colloquium  

CGSC 395 (half-credit)  

Skills requirement  

Suggested skills requirement: CPSC 112 , CPSC 202 , LING 224 , PSYC 200 , PSYC 270 , S&DS 100 , S&DS 103 , S&DS 106 , S&DS 220 , S&DS 230 , and S&DS S107E , or with permission of the DUS

PSYC 200 is suggested for B.S. degree

Senior requirement  

CGSC 491 , empirical research and senior essay  

B.A. Cognitive Science    

14 term courses (13.5 credits) including prerequisite and senior requirement  

All requirements are the same as for the B.S. degree except the Senior requirement.  

CGSC 491 , n on empirica l senior essay  

Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field devoted to exploring the nature of cognitive processes such as perception, reasoning, memory, attention, language, imagery, motor control, and problem solving.   The goal of cognitive science, stated simply, is to understand how the mind works.   Cognitive science is an inherently interdisciplinary endeavor, drawing on tools and ideas from traditional academic fields such as psychology, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and neuroscience.

Students may apply to enter the major in Cognitive Science at any point after the first year.  CGSC 110 is prerequisite to the major.  Interested students are also encouraged to take an introductory course in computer science, economics, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, or psychology.   For more information, see the   program website .

FACULTY ASSOCIATED WITH THE PROGRAM IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE

Professors  Woo-kyoung Ahn ( Psychology ), Stephen Anderson ( Emeritus ), Amy Arnsten ( School of Medicine ), Richard Aslin ( Haskins Laboratories), John Bargh ( Psychology ), Paul Bloom ( Emeritus ) ( Psychology ) , Hal Blumenfeld ( School of Medicine ) , Claire Bowern ( Linguistics ), Nicolò Cesana-Arlotti ( Psychology ), Marvin Chun ( Psychology ) , Veneeta Dayal ( Linguistics ), Michael Della Rocca ( Philosophy ) , Ravi Dhar ( School of Management ) , Julie Dorsey ( Computer Science ) ,  Melissa Ferguson ( Psychology ), Robert Frank ( Linguistics ), Shane Frederick ( School of Management ) , David Gelernter ( Computer Science ) , Tamar Gendler ( Philosophy ), Laurence Horn ( Emeritus ) ( Linguistics ), Marcia Johnson ( Emeritus ), Christine Jolls ( Law School ) , Dan Kahan ( Law School ), Frank Keil ( Psychology, Linguistics ) , Joshua Knobe ( Philosophy ), Gregory McCarthy ( Psychology ), Nathan Novemsky ( School of Management, Psychology ), Kenneth Pugh ( School of Medicine ), Ian Quinn ( Music ), Holly Rushmeier ( Computer Science ), Laurie Santos ( Psychology ), Brian Scassellati ( Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering ), Brian Scholl ( Chair ) ( Psychology ), Sun-Joo Shin ( Philosophy ), Jason Stanley ( Philosophy ), Zoltán Szabó ( Philosophy ), Nick Turk-Browne ( Psychology ), Tom Tyler ( Law School ) , Julie Van Dyke ( Haskins Laboratories ), Fred Volkmar ( School of Medicine ), David Watts ( Anthropology ), Karen Wynn ( Emeritus ) ( Psychology ), Gideon Yaffe ( Law School ), Raffaella Zanuttini ( Linguistics ), Gal Zauberman ( School of Management ), Steven Zucker ( Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering )

Associate Professors  Philip Corlett ( School of Medicine ) , Jason Dana ( School of Management ) , Yarrow Dunham ( Psychology ), Hedy Kober ( School of Medicine ) , James McPartland ( Child Study Center ) , Maria Piñango ( Linguistics )

Assistant Professors Ryan Bennett ( Linguistics ) , Steve Chang ( Psychology ), Philip Corlett ( School of Medicine ), Julian Jara-Ettinger ( Psychology ), Julia Leonard ( Psychology ) ,  Samuel McDougle (Psychology), Al Powers ( School of Medicine ),   Robb Rutledge ( Psycholog y) , Marynel Vázquez ( Computer Science ), Ilker Yildirim ( Psychology )

Lecturer Daylian Cain ( School of Management )

See  visual roadmap  of the requirements.

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101 Best Cognitive Psychology Research Topics

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Neuronal gateway to essential molecules in learning and memory discovered on atomic scale

by University of Barcelona

Learning from an experience, remembering an anecdote or changing an attitude are examples that reveal how all our behavior is the result of the exchange of chemical compounds—neurotransmitters—between neurons. Unraveling what exactly happens at the molecular level when neurons "talk" to each other at synapses is crucial for understanding the human brain in general and, in particular, for helping to solve mental health problems.

Now, a study has observed and described the structure of a protein in the membrane of neurons that acts as a gate that opens and closes. It is the protein Asc1/CD98hc (Asc1), which acts as a specific transporter for certain key amino acids for learning and memory.

The article, published in the journal Nature Communications , was led by teams from the University of Barcelona (UB), the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) and the Rare Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Center (CIBERER).

A protein linked to mental illness

The activity of the Asc1 protein has been linked to different types of mental pathologies. Therefore, understanding its three-dimensional structure will allow the development of new drugs for these pathologies.

"Modulating Asc1 activity could be a therapeutic strategy for conditions such as stroke and schizophrenia. Determining the structure of Asc1 at atomic resolution is important because it can help in the search for compounds that modify its activity," says expert Óscar Llorca (CNIO).

"The collaboration between the UB, IRB Barcelona and the CNIO has been key to unraveling the mysteries of Asc1 and gaining unprecedented insight into its structure and function. The discovery not only sheds light on the complex cellular machinery underlying fundamental cognitive processes, but also brings us closer to the development of more precise therapeutic interventions for a range of neurological disorders," adds Manuel Palacín, lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine of the UB's Faculty of Biology and head of the Amino Acid Transporters and Disease Lab at IRB Barcelona.

In addition to the experts Óscar Llorca and Manuel Palacín, Ekaitz Errasti-Murugarren, professor at the Department of Physiological Sciences at the UB's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, also participated in the study. The first authors are Josep Rullo-Tubau (IRB Barcelona) and María Martínez-Molledo (CNIO).

Transporting molecules crucial for cognitive functions

Every cell in the body has gates in its membrane for exchanging substances with the outside environment. These are proteins that open and close continuously according to the needs of the cell. Specifically, they open inwards, capture molecules—for example, an amino acid—with a modification in their structure, release them and open outwards, or vice versa.

The Asc1 protein is found mainly in neurons of the hippocampus and cerebral cortex in the brain. It specializes in moving two key amino acids—namely D-serine and glycine—into or out of the neuron for the neural connections—the synapses—involved in learning, memory and brain plasticity, which is the ability of the nervous system to modify circuits in response to new environments.

Fluctuations in the supply of these amino acids have been linked to schizophrenia, stroke, ALS and other neurological diseases. There have long been attempts to design drugs that regulate Asc1 activity to treat these diseases, but unsuccessfully. A detailed understanding of the atomic structure of Asc1 provides essential information to achieve this.

Caught when opening inside

The Asc1 protein was purified by the expert Josep Rullo-Tubau at IRB Barcelona, and transferred to the CNIO so that María Martínez-Molledo could observe it with cryoelectronic microscopy and, thus, determine the structure of Asc1 in 3D and high resolution using these images. With the cryoelectronic microscopy technique, the molecules are frozen at high speed and observed under electron microscopes. Advanced imaging techniques are then used to interpret the information.

The observed structure shows Asc1 when it has been trapped at a stage where the gate was open toward the inside of the cell, just when it was waiting to receive an amino acid to be transported. "From its atomic structure, we were able to predict which parts of the protein seem important for binding the amino acid to be transported, and the possible mechanism for transporting it out of the cell," says Llorca.

The groups of the experts Víctor Guallar (Barcelona Supercomputing Center) and Lucía Díaz (Nostrum Biodiscovery) made these predictions about the functioning of the transporter, which were tested by Rullo-Tubau by measuring the effect of specific mutations in Asc1. This study was complemented by Rafael Artuch (Hospital Sant Joan de Déu) and the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics scientific platform at IRB Barcelona, headed by Camille Stephan-Otto Attolini.

One protein with two modus operandi

The findings help explain another peculiarity of Asc1. While the rest of the family of transporters to which it belongs—called HATs—can only exchange amino acids—that is, transport one amino acid into the cell when they take out another, or vice versa—Asc1 can take out one amino acid without the need to introduce another, and open and close in a vacuum. This mode of transport is called diffusion.

The results obtained on the molecular structure of Asc1 provide data to better understand the function performed by each of the transport modes.

Journal information: Nature Communications

Provided by University of Barcelona

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