Branch of psychology devoted to the study of human cognition , particularly as it affects learning and behaviour.
The field grew out of advances in developmental , and comparative psychology and in computer science, particularly information-processing research. Cognitive psychology shares many research interests with cognitive science , and some experts classify it as a branch of the latter. Contemporary cognitive theory has followed one of two broad approaches: the developmental approach, derived from the work of {{link=Piaget, Jean">Jean Piaget and concerned with "representational thought" and the construction of mental models ("schemas") of the world, and the information-processing approach, which views the human mind as analogous to a sophisticated computer system.