Abstract
The kind of work undertaken in many organisations has changed dramatically in recent decades. Economic and technological changes have meant that the number of employees engaged in knowledge-based work has grown, whereas physical work has become less common. As a result, the behaviour of people in organisations is increasingly being understood in terms of cognitive theories and, to a lesser extent, biological psychology theories. Cognitive theories address how people process information and the limitations on their information processing capacities. They offer explanations of performance and errors in knowledge-based tasks. This level of explanation is therefore ideal for tackling many of the issues that arise in the workplace. This chapter will expand on the cognitive and biological psychology theories which underpin the occupational psychology outlined in the individual and organisational chapters, in particular focusing on a selection of key domains within occupational psychology which have particularly been influenced by cognitive and biological psychology. These domains are training, decision making, human machine interaction, and team work and the review will illustrate how both the applied practice of occupational psychology can be enhanced through greater understanding of cognitive and biological psychology, and also how these basic areas of research have developed in part through application to work and organisational problems.