Drawing from the textbook definition of cognition — that is, the brain’s ability to receive a sensory trigger and then determine how to process it (elaborate, reduce, store, transform, etc.) — cognitive psychology involves understanding how exactly the brain processes sensory inputs and affects our behaviors. In short, cognitive psychology explains “thinking”.
Then, from studying why and how we think the way we do, cognitive psychology also helps us understand how our own internal mechanisms, as well as outside influences, shape how we process information, how we rationalize it, and how we ultimately form our perceptions about the world around us.
Moreover, because our internal, bio-chemical makeup and the environment around us affect our cognition, that translates to nature and nurture both at work. That said, what exactly is nature versus nurture?
Nature basically equals biology. More specifically, nature deals with how our genes function, what physical traits we inherit, and even what personality traits (to a certain degree) we develop.
Nurture, on the other hand, includes all of the environmental factors that affect us: culture, our upbringing, home life, relationships with other people, work, school.
And while there are clear links between nature and nurture — that both influence human behavior (A.K.A. gene-environment interaction) — there is still, to this day, some debate about which has more influence than the other. So much so, that the field of psychology has several sub-disciplines (biopsychology, evolutionary psychology, environmental psychology, behavioral psychology, transcendental psychology…you name it). What we do know, for sure, is that we can’t completely understand nature without nurture, and vice versa.
Nevertheless, whichever way we approach understanding cognition, studying how cognition works is, as we can see, central to understanding human behavior. We learn what makes people tick: How exactly does your brain react when you see a card trick? Or when you solve a math problem? Or when you watch a scary movie? Or when you witness a store getting robbed? Or why you laugh at certain jokes and not at others? Or what do you do when your car suddenly has a flat tire? Or what traumatic events are stored in your memory, and how do you recall them?
In other words, there is clearly no shortage of utility in studying cognition. Cognitively speaking, of course!
Revlin, R. (2013). Cognition theory and practice (1st ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Cherry, K. (2020). The Age Old Debate of Nature vs. Nurture. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-nature-versus-nurture-2795392
Lumen. (2020). What Is Cognition?. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-psychology/chapter/what-is-cognition/