Chapter 12 introduces us to several key cognitive topics in personality psychology. Cognition refers to awareness and thinking as well as to specific mental acts such as perceiving, interpreting, remembering, believing, and anticipating. These behaviors add up to "information processing," or the transformation of sensory input into mental representations and the manipulation of such representations.

The authors introduce three key levels of cognition that are studied by personality psychologists: Perception, interpretation, and beliefs and desires. Personality psychologists are interested in differences among groups and individuals in these three levels of cognition, as well as in defining the characteristics of cognition that all humans share. The authors first review work suggesting that personality can be revealed through perception. The authors review historical and modern work on field-dependence, and pain tolerance and sensation reducing-augmenting. Next the authors review work suggesting that personality can be revealed through interpretation. The authors review historical and modern work on personal constructs, locus of control, learned helplessness, and explanatory style.

Next the authors review work suggesting that personality can be revealed through conscious goals, the third level of cognition. Here the authors review personal projects analysis and research on life tasks, goals, and strategies. The authors next review historical and modern work on intelligenceÑan important individual difference at the interface of cognition and personality.

Finally, the authors highlight the many different controversies surrounding intelligence, including the achievement and aptitude approaches to intelligence, whether there is a single, general intelligence, or multiple intelligences, and the cultural context of intelligence.