This paper provides an overview of the area of psychological inspired symbolic cognitive architectures. It does this by first defining the terms that describe this research area and by selecting three architectures to examine: ACT-R, EPIC, and Soar. For each of these architectures, the motivations, assumptions, and features are evaluated. The similarities and differences between the architectures are discussed as issues are raised and the results summarized. A few example cognitive models are described to demonstrate the different architectures. Finally, some current and future research areas in the field of cognitive architectures are examined as a springboard for future dissertation related work.