Spring 2027

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology examines how people perceive, learn, remember, plan, solve problems, make decisions, and communicate, using psychological approaches alongside computer science, linguistics, and neurobiology.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Brad Postle

The only assignments were quizzes, which were easy, and exams, which were tough; one student did fine without reading the textbook.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the anatomical structures associated with the following major classes of cognition: perception, attention, motor control, memory, and cognitive control.

  • Explain the process of the transduction of information from the outside world into a neural code, and the brain’s representation of that information on any of multiple mental codes.

  • Interpret graphical depictions of experimental data, including accuracy and reaction time.

  • Critically evaluate claims about cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience as the appear in popular press.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

PSYCH 202, (ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY 101 and 102),ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY/​BOTANY 151, or (BIOCORE 381 and 382)

PSYCH 414 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

BRADLEY POSTLE is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Spring 2010, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Fall 2023, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JONATHAN GALLIMORE is recorded teaching in Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 3150

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Brad Postle

A student described the professor as super engaging and called it the best psychology class they had taken at the university.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 2.83 GPA, 37.8% A/AB (n=283 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.55 GPA, 75.3% A/AB (n=186 letter grades); Fall 2025: 2.95 GPA, 39.5% A/AB (n=304 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Brad Postle

The only assignments were quizzes, which were easy, and exams, which were tough; one student did fine without reading the textbook.

Past student reviews · Brad Postle

Lectures were sometimes dry, but taking good notes and paying attention likely led to doing fine with minimal study time.

Topics

  • Perception, learning, memory, planning, problem solving, decision making, communication
  • Anatomical structures for perception, attention, motor control, memory, cognitive control
  • Transduction of information into neural codes and mental representations

Skills

  • Describing anatomical structures associated with cognition
  • Explaining information transduction into neural codes
  • Interpreting experimental data graphs
  • Evaluating popular press claims in cognitive science

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 4 recent terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

6 earlier forecasts · 0.09 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
PSYCH 414 · Spring 2027

Cognitive Psychology

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:820:016394",
    "course_id": "PSYCH 414",
    "course_uid": "course_42d43988349abb6aa4cec6d4",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "016394",
    "source_subject_id": "820",
    "title": "Cognitive Psychology",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "ef8dc469abb4b47e9bec9ec937573a871fd097228f2f38a95ada79f3cdc29a27",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}