Cognition and psychopathology: Overview

Abstract

The bidirectional relation of cognition and psychopathology is discussed in historical context as an introduction to the special issue of Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology devoted to contemporary research on this topic. Cognition refers to the processes by which information is transformed, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. Psychopathology refers to disorders in behavior, cognition, and/or perception. Although rooted in studies of major psychiatric disorders and general intelligence, the field has moved to include developmental disabilities, neurological impairment, and less severe psychological disturbance on the one hand and finer grained cognitive processes on the other as well as a constant concern with language issues. Special methods of investigation reveal subtle effects but important facets of the cognition-psychopathology relation.