The Cognitive Psychology program at IUB is designed to develop a systematic understanding of cognitive processes (perception, human learning, attention, categorization, problem solving, decision -making, information processing and retrieval, short and long-term memory and forgetting, sensory encoding, motor control, psycholinguistics, and reading) with major emphasis on the development and testing of theories in this area. As part of the training program, students are expected to participate in extensive research programs.

The cognitive psychology program overlaps with other areas of specialization both within and outside the department. Where it is appropriate to the student's individual program, course work in other areas such as cognitive science, mathematical psychology, linguistics, computer science, mathematics, etc. is encouraged.

Research in these areas is being carried out in laboratories equipped with computers, in association with a variety of specialized stimulus presentation and data acquisition devices (e.g., video display devices, tachistoscopes, speech synthesizers and recognizers, etc.)