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Introduction to the problem: Systems thinking draws on complex cognitive processes. Many instructors of systems thinking and systems dynamics lack expertise in cognitively-informed pedagogy, and thus may be misunderstanding their students' struggles or missing opportunities to build their students' strengths. Approach to the work: Cognitive task analysis is the process of examining how learners process information and build understanding while completing an instructional activity. We have analyzed an assignment in which students identify a feedback loop in a reading from popular media, draw a causal loop diagram, write a narrative that describes how the loop works, and articulate the impact of the loop on the larger system within which the loop is embedded. Results: The activity exercises analogical reasoning when identifying the loop in the reading passage, causal reasoning to create the A ® B links of the diagram, facility with switching between parts and wholes at all steps of the assignment, use of external visualizations to relieve load on working memory and make essential aspects of the loop more salient, and use of sophisticated linguistic structures to convey conditionality while writing the narrative. Discussion: Our learning goal for this assignment is that students will be able to recognize, analyze, and explain feedback loops wherever they may encounter them in their personal and professional lives. Our motivation in explicating the cognitive processes required to reach this learning goal is that instructors will be better equipped to craft effective lessons, diagnose their students' difficulties, and recognize their students' cognitive accomplishments along their learning trajectory.