Learning and Cognition

Humans are born with a range of innate behaviours, but these behaviours only cover the most basic biological mechanisms and survival needs.

Humans have highly developed cognitive abilities and can think about their own thinking (metacognition). This is why it is important to understand human cognition: what it is, how it can be described and explained, how it develops and how reliable it is in various situations.

Humans and animals are capable of various forms of learning, some simpler, some more sophisticated. Conditioning is a simpler form of learning that can operate on the level of overt behaviours without requiring participation of cognitive processes. More sophisticated forms of learning rely on forming mental representations of reality (cognitive schemas). As social beings, people also learn from observing each other — this is known as social learning. Thinking and decision-making are probably the most complex cognitive processes that humans develop as a result of learning. Studying how people think about specific situations, and whether or not their decisions are accurate, presents great practical value. The dual processing model and the related idea of cognitive biases allow us to investigate these specific decision-making scenarios.

However, there is also a variety of other cognitive processes, such as attention, perception, memory and language. Scientific investigation of a cognitive process implies creating a model of it and studying how it is affected by various factors (biological, cultural, environmental). If there is a valid model of a cognitive process, and knowledge of how it is affected, it is possible to design improvements.