Educational psychology is the study of how people learn and the process and effectiveness of teaching itself. The main focus is on learning processes in humans and development of new learning strategies in individuals. Educational psychology is not just focused on learning in school age children but learning processes that occur at all ages. Social and mental (cognitive and emotional) aspects of the learning process are important factors in educational psychology in integration of different fields of study is common.
Differences in learning between individuals is an important component of educational psychology research with gifted and delayed learning being commonly studied. The process of teaching is a common research topic with the negative and positive consequences of differing learning techniques being a central component of many studies. Many curriculums are based on educational psychology research.