Cognition

Second Edition

Marvin M. Chun

Steven B. Most

Cognition, Second Edition, provides a clear and engaging introduction to modern cognitive psychology, making current research accessible to undergraduate students. Emphasizing real-world applications, the text integrates activities, videos, and demonstrations to encourage active engagement with the scientific process.

The book explores how cognitive scientists study mental processes and highlights the relevance of cognitive principles in everyday life. It also emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of cognitive psychology, connecting it to broader areas within psychological science.

Written by experienced researchers and educators, Cognition balances academic rigor with a student-centered approach. It fosters critical thinking and inquiry, helping students view cognitive psychology as a dynamic and intellectually stimulating field.

This edition is enhanced by Oxford Insight, a comprehensive digital learning platform that supports instruction with assignable quizzes, self-assessments, learning objectives, and interactive labs. These tools promote active learning and provide instructors with flexible, data-informed teaching resources.

About the Authors

Marvin M. Chun is the Richard M. Colgate Professor of Psychology at Yale University, with secondary appointments in the Cognitive Science Program and the Yale School of Medicine Department of Neuroscience. He received his BA in Psychology from Yonsei University (South Korea), and his PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he won a graduate teaching award. Prior to his faculty position at Yale, his postdoctoral training was at Harvard University. Professor Chun leads a cognitive neuroscience laboratory that uses functional brain imaging and machine learning to decode and predict how people see, attend, remember, and perform optimally. His research has been honored with a Troland Award from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, an American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology in the area of cognition and human learning, and a Samsung Ho-Am Prize in Science (South Korea). His teaching has been recognized with both the Lex Hixon ’63 Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Social Sciences and the Phi Beta Kappa William Clyde DeVane Medal for Distinguished Scholarship and Teaching in Yale College.

Steven B. Most is Professor of Psychology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia (UNSW Sydney), with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Delaware. He received his BA in psychology from Brandeis University and PhD in psychology from Harvard University, where he won graduate teaching awards, followed by postdoctoral training at Vanderbilt and Yale Universities. Professor Most served as president of the Australasian Society for Experimental Psychology and leads the Motivated Attention and Perception Lab at UNSW Sydney, where his team uses behavioral and physiological measures to understand how attention, motivation, and emotion shape what people see, remember, and do, as well as how cognition affects safety and well-being in the real world. His research has been recognized through fellowships and awards from the National Institutes of Health, the Australian Research Council, and the New York Academy of Sciences, and with an appointment as Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. His teaching and mentoring have been recognized with the Alpha Lambda Delta Excellence in Teaching Award at the University of Delaware and, at UNSW Sydney, with both a Postgraduate Supervisor Award and an Outstanding Postgraduate Supervisor Award, the Dean of Science Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Exemplary Teaching Practice Award for Inspiring Students.

Before writing Cognition, Professors Chun and Most collaborated on research examining how emotional stimuli capture attention.

Chapter 1. What Is Cognitive Psychology?

Chapter 2. Cognitive Neuroscience

Chapter 3. Perception and Mental Imagery

Chapter 4. External Attention

Chapter 5. Cognitive Control and Working Memory

Chapter 6. How Memory Works

Chapter 7. Memory Systems and Everyday Memory Failures

Chapter 8. Knowledge, Intelligence and Cognitive Development

Chapter 9. Judgment and Decision Making

Chapter 10. Reasoning and Problem Solving

Chapter 11. Language and Communication

Chapter 12. Social Cognition

Discovery Labs

Available in Oxford Insight, Discovery Labs offer a wide variety of interactive experiments, exercises, and animations designed to help students understand important concepts and principles. Discovery Labs brings cognition to life, allowing students to act as researchers and test subjects by giving them the ability to participate in experiments and to analyze and share results.

List of Discovery Labs

Apparent Motion
Attentional Blink
The Brown-Peterson Paradigm
Change Blindness
Colour Vision
Dual-Task Interference Encoding Task
Dual-Task Interference Perceptual Refractory Period Paradigm
Encoding Specificity
False Memory
The Illusory Truth Effect
Lateral Inhibition
Lexical Decision-making
Memory Schemas
Memory Span
Mental Rotation
Motion Induced Blindness
Operation Span
The Ponzo Illusion
Psycholinguistics
Reasoning with Probability

Receptive Fields
Risky Decision Making
Semantic Priming
Serial Position Effect
Spatial Cueing
Sternberg Search
Synaptic Transmission
The Reicher-Wheeler Paradigm
The Simon Effect
The Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off
The Sperling Partial Report Paradigm: Iconic Memory
The Stroop Effect
Top-Down Processing of Colour Information
The 2-4-6 Task
The Wason Task
The Word Frequency Effect
Visual Search
Von Restorff Effect

Features and Demonstrations

See for Yourself demonstrations describe an activity or mental trick students can try

Think for Yourself boxes provide an in-depth look at interesting subjects relevant to the chapter content

Sample Videos

A Veteran Copes with PTSD: Brandon's Story

Man with a 7 Second Memory Still Plays the Piano but Doesn't Know How

Videos and Webinars

Contemporary Research

Research Focus boxes highlight cutting-edge research studies, explaining methodology and results

Praise for Cognition

"This textbook has a fresh feel to it with respect to the selection of topics, scholarly quality, and presentation style. The writing is clear, engaging, and at appropriate level of complexity for an introductory text. The chapters are informative and fun to read."

– Shahram Ghiasinejad, University of Central Florida

"The text is very well organized and covers the relevant material in a compelling manner. The language chapter, which in most cognitive psychology texts does not present a full picture of psycholinguistics, is particularly comprehensive and tells an interesting story.”

– Louisa Slowiaczek, Bowdoin College

"The book is very accessible and presents a refreshed view of cognitive psychology. The integration of real world examples is specific strength that makes this book stand out.”

– Arturo Hernandez, University of Houston

"This text is accessible, yet comprehensive and challenging. The concepts are organized well, and explanations strike a balance that is not overly simplified nor excessively detailed.”

– Brandi Emerick, Indiana University

"This textbook is well organized and well written. It has a good combination of classic, groundbreaking, and recent research. Students will find the textbook easy to comprehend and a pleasure to read.”

– Robert Hines, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

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