Abstract Over a decade in the making and described in some seventy-five published papers, the LIDA cognitive model is comprehensive, complex, and hard to “wrap one’s head around”. Here we offer, in tutorial fashion, a current, relatively complete and somewhat detailed, description of the conceptual LIDA model, with pointers to more complete accounts of individual processes in the literature. These descriptions also include some features of the workings of the LIDA model that have not been published previously. The tutorial begins with several short sections designed to ease the reader into the LIDA model. These are followed by an account of the conceptual commitments of the LIDA model. We also include a brief introduction to the LIDA computational model via the LIDA Framework, with pointers to its own tutorial. This is followed by sketches of several of the LIDA based agents developed with the help of the Framework. The tutorial ends with a section on current research activity, which includes a table showing which aspects of the LIDA conceptual model have currently been implemented computationally.