Issues for Applied Cognitive Psychology

Abstract

External funding pressures and disaffection with traditional domains of research have led to increasing numbers of cognitive psychologists investigating applied topics. I address two issues concerning this movement. The first is the suitability of the researcher's approach for different applied problems. When the research questions are initiated by applied concerns, the researcher's theoretical perspective may not be optimally suited to answer these questions. I discuss when this can occur. The second issue concerns the overall value of applied research for the discipline. I argue that by introducing new research questions, investigating applied topics may in the long run be beneficial to both applied and theoretical psychology.