Coverage of Cognitive Psychology in Educational Psychology Textbooks

This study examines the coverage of recent work in cognitive psychology in introductory educational psychology textbooks. Leading theorists were identified through a poll of editorial board members of major educational psychology journals. Key concepts were identified through analysis of topic indexes of cognitive psychology texts. Twenty-four educational psychology textbooks were examined to determine the extent to which theorists and concepts were represented, as determined by inspection of subject indexes and reference lists. The textbooks were found to vary on the extent of coverage of cognitive psychology. Overall, however, coverage was low. This study suggests that inspection of subject indexes and reference lists may provide a swift, if shallow, measure of textbook content.