We all know that people learn differently: Some learn by seeing, others by doing – and some by hanging out with friends and playing video games (seriously).

But there is more to education than just processing information. What about different ways of studying? Recalling information? Memorizing? There is much we still don't know about all of these things, but cognitive psychologists are trying to change that – with big implications for classrooms of the future.

“Cognitive Psychology is really about the processes of the human mind, how we acquire and use information," said Erin Sparck, who teaches cognitive psychology at UCLA Extension. "It ranges from everything from perception, attention, memory, judgment making, decision making, all that kind of stuff."

Sparck is part of a growing group of psychologists studying how the human mind acquires and uses information. And she's not the only Bruin on the case. UCLA professor Keith Holyoak and retired UCLA professor Robert Bjork have also worked on applying cognitive psychology to better understand the process of student learning.

UCLA Extension spoke with Sparck, Holyoak and Bjork about the future of the field how it affects their work in the classroom. These interviews have been consolidated and edited for concision and clarity.

Why is it important to study cognitive psychology?

ES: It tells us so much about our everyday behavior, things that we really wouldn't understand otherwise. One of the topics I like to discuss that's related to my own research that I did when I was a graduate student is just how to be better learners. So how can you study more effectively to actually make your learning last? How do our memories work? So kind of just lifelong learning.

KH: Well, among other reasons, to try and inform education on things that are more or less useful as interventions to teach.

Given your understanding of cognitive psychology, how has that influenced the way you teach?

ES: I really try and encourage people to retrieve information. I think to me, that's the biggest one. So it can just be something as simple as, like, asking a lot of questions in class and really encouraging people to engage in that way. Just as well as creating certain types of study guides where they have to retrieve information, and just really creating a nice open dialog between me and the students, as well as between them.

KH: Truth is, I probably don't consciously apply it that much. I try to point out analogies between fields in the course of my own teaching, or sometimes encourage students to try and find their own analogies. I try to get a sense of what the students want to get out of the class, and then orient the teaching in that specific way for them.

How has the study of cognitive psychology influenced learning environments?

KH: One big theme in cognitive psychology is sometimes called the constructivist view, which is basically the student is not just passively taking in the instruction and then regurgitating back whatever they're told. They're learning how to ask their own questions, think critically, how to generate solutions to new problems, rather than just repeating the solutions to the old problems that we're taught from. Move away from emphasis on sort of rote memory as the main aspect of education to something that's more focused on the mental activities of the learner.

RB: Some of these principles, like spacing and so on, have been known for a very long time. Forgetting, we think of it as a bad thing in some respects, but if we didn't forget, we would really be a mess. What's really adaptive about human memory versus some device where you would just kind of erase the old thing is that if it becomes relevant again, those things will come back very quickly. They're still in your memory. It's really a quite different architecture in terms of the way the brain and human memory works.

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The study of cognitive psychology can help us better understand not just ourselves, but also what we need to succeed both in and outside the classroom. If you’re interested in learning more about the field, take a look at UCLA Extension's upcoming courses.