---
title: "Cognitive Retraining | Cognitive Psychology"
description: "Cognitive retraining is a therapy method that helps change biased thought patterns in Cognitive Psychology, especially around stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/cognitive-psychology/key-terms/cognitive-retraining"
type: "key-term"
subject: "Cognitive Psychology"
unit: "Unit 17"
---

# Cognitive Retraining | Cognitive Psychology

## Definition

Cognitive retraining is a therapeutic approach in Cognitive Psychology that helps people notice and change biased or unhelpful thought patterns, especially stereotypes and prejudice.

## What It Is

Cognitive retraining is a set of strategies in Cognitive Psychology that helps people notice, question, and replace biased thought patterns. In this course, it fits with topics like stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination because it targets the thinking side of bias, not just the outward behavior.

The idea is simple: a lot of biased reactions happen automatically. You may make a snap judgment about a group before you have time to think it through. Cognitive retraining tries to interrupt that mental shortcut by slowing the person down, pointing out the pattern, and giving them a different way to interpret the situation.

This is not the same as just telling someone to “be nicer.” It usually involves structured exercises, like examining examples that reveal stereotypes, practicing perspective-taking, or comparing a quick assumption with actual evidence. The goal is to build awareness of your own mental habits so you can catch them earlier next time.

A useful way to think about it is as mental re-training, not memory training. You are not trying to memorize facts about groups. You are practicing a new habit of thought, one that is more accurate, less automatic, and less shaped by prejudice.

Cognitive retraining shows up a lot in diversity training, classroom activities, and therapy-style interventions. For example, a role-play might ask you to respond to a situation from the point of view of someone facing discrimination, then reflect on which assumptions shaped your first reaction. That reflection is the retraining part: you notice the old pattern, then rehearse a better one.

Because it works through cognition, this term connects directly to cognitive bias, implicit bias, and social learning. It also helps explain why changing attitudes can take practice. If the bias was learned and reinforced over time, changing it usually takes repeated exposure, reflection, and feedback, not one conversation.

## Why It Matters

Cognitive retraining matters in Cognitive Psychology because it shows how thought patterns can be changed, not just measured. That makes it useful for understanding why stereotypes can persist even when people know better, and why bias reduction often takes more than good intentions.

It also gives you a concrete example of how the mind can be trained to process social information differently. When a person practices challenging an automatic assumption, they are working against cognitive efficiency in a deliberate way. In other words, the brain likes shortcuts, but those shortcuts can create errors and unfair judgments.

This term is especially useful for cases involving prejudice, classroom diversity work, or interventions meant to reduce discriminatory behavior. If a scenario describes role-play, perspective-taking, or repeated reflection on stereotypes, cognitive retraining is probably the best fit. It helps you explain both the method and the psychological change it is trying to produce.

## Connections

### Cognitive Bias

Cognitive retraining often targets cognitive biases because those biases shape the fast judgments people make about others. If you see an automatic assumption, like expecting someone to act a certain way because of group membership, that is the kind of mental habit retraining tries to interrupt and replace with more accurate thinking.

### [Implicit Bias](/cognitive-psychology/key-terms/implicit-bias)

Implicit bias is the hidden, automatic side of prejudice, so it is a common target for cognitive retraining. The point is not always to make a person instantly unbiased, but to help them notice snap reactions and slow down before those reactions become decisions, comments, or unequal treatment.

### Social Identity Theory

Social Identity Theory helps explain why people protect their in-groups and develop stereotypes about out-groups in the first place. Cognitive retraining can work against that pattern by making you reflect on how group identity shapes interpretation, empathy, and judgments about other people.

### [Social Learning](/cognitive-psychology/key-terms/social-learning)

Many biased beliefs are learned through observation, repetition, and social reinforcement, which is exactly the kind of pattern social learning describes. Cognitive retraining tries to unlearn or revise those responses by giving new models, new interpretations, and repeated practice with more inclusive thinking.

## On the AP Exam

A quiz question or short-answer item may describe someone making stereotypes-based judgments and ask what intervention would reduce that thinking. You would identify cognitive retraining by looking for strategies like reflection, role-playing, perspective-taking, or practice with alternative interpretations.

If you get a scenario about diversity training, school discussion, or bias reduction, explain that cognitive retraining targets the thought process behind prejudice, not just the outward action. On an essay or case analysis, you can trace the sequence: automatic stereotype, awareness of the bias, challenge to the assumption, and replacement with a more accurate response.

## Cognitive Retraining vs Social Learning

These overlap because both involve changing behavior through experience, but they are not the same thing. Social learning explains how people pick up attitudes or behaviors from others, while cognitive retraining is the intervention that tries to change a person's existing thought patterns after they have already been learned.

## Key Takeaways

- Cognitive retraining is a structured way to change biased or automatic thought patterns in Cognitive Psychology.
- It is often used to reduce stereotypes, prejudice, and discriminatory thinking by making people notice and challenge their assumptions.
- The method usually uses reflection, role-play, perspective-taking, or repeated practice with alternative interpretations.
- It works on cognition first, so it focuses on how people think before they act.
- You can use it to explain why bias reduction takes practice instead of a one-time reminder.

## FAQs

### What is cognitive retraining in Cognitive Psychology?

Cognitive retraining is a set of techniques that helps people change biased or unhelpful thought patterns. In this course, it is often discussed as a way to reduce stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination by reshaping how someone interprets social situations.

### How does cognitive retraining reduce bias?

It reduces bias by making automatic assumptions visible, then replacing them with more accurate thought patterns. A person might practice perspective-taking, examine evidence against a stereotype, or reflect on how a quick judgment could lead to unfair treatment.

### Is cognitive retraining the same as social learning?

No. Social learning explains how people pick up attitudes and behaviors from observation and reinforcement. Cognitive retraining is a method for changing those learned patterns once they are already in place.

### What is an example of cognitive retraining?

A role-play exercise about discrimination is a common example. If someone reacts to a scenario with a stereotype, the activity may ask them to pause, identify the assumption, and practice a more evidence-based or empathetic response.

## Related Study Guides

- [17.2 Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination](/cognitive-psychology/unit-17/stereotypes-prejudice-discrimination/study-guide/ZCn3TQ0zuhfZNpgR)

## About This Document

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