Unit Synopsis
This unit focuses on cognitive psychology, which is the study of how the mind works. At the end of the unit, you will have a broad understanding of how people attend to and perceive items in our world, how we remember short term and long term information, how we use language and how we make decisions. You will be able to communicate your perspective on the key debates and controversies in cognitive psychology based on your examination of historical and cutting-edge research. You will explore some of the key research findings in the area through planning, executing and writing up a research study.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
96 credit points in CC43, CF59, CL51, CL55, CM62, or CG93. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Report | 50% |
| 2. Online Quiz(zes) | 10% |
| 3. Take Home Exam | 40% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 87.50% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 29.09% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: SUTE
Tutorials were viewed as very helpful in supporting the assessments.
Retain the focus on the assessments in the tutorials.
Retained the focus on the assessment in the tutorials.
Source: SUTE
Some articles in the reading list were hard to obtain.
Review and update the reading list.
The reading lists were reviewed and updated.
Source: SUTE and Feedback
The practical real world focus of the assessment was viewed very positively.
Retain the practical real world focus of the assessments
In Progress
Source: SUTE and Feedback
Tutorials focused on the assessments were highly valued by students.
Retain the focus on assessments in the tutorials.
In Progress
Source: SUTE and Feedback
The quality of some of the short talks could be better.
The short talks will be reviewed and updated.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Express a broad understanding of the fundamental concepts in cognitive psychology
- Communicate a clear, coherent and independent exposition of key research findings and theories in cognitive psychology
- Apply research methods used to study cognitive psychology.
This unit addresses Foundational Competencies as specified by the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC) and specifically aligns to:
1.1 Comprehend and apply a broad and coherent body of knowledge of psychology, with depth of understanding of underlying principles, theories and concepts in the discipline, using a scientific approach, including the following topics: (v) learning and memory; (vi) cognition, language and perception; (vii) motivation and emotion; (viii) neuroscience and the biological bases of behaviour; and (xii) research methods and statistics.
1.3 Analyse and critique theory and research in the discipline of psychology and communicate these in written and oral formats.
1.4 Demonstrate an understanding of appropriate values and ethics in psychology.
1.6 Demonstrate self-directed pursuit of scholarly inquiry in psychology.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Report | • | • | |
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | |
| 3 - Take Home Exam | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | ||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | ||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |