What is Cognition?
By Gregory Kellett, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at SFSU and UCSF, and science writer for Lumos Labs.
What exactly is cognition and how does it work? Here we will attempt to outline and explain some of the basic concepts involved with the inner workings of your head.
Cognition literally means “to know”. Knowledge can be thought of as memories formed from the manipulation and assimilation of raw input , perceived via our senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell.
Using knowledge to direct and adapt action towards goals is the foundation of the cognitive process. Past experiences and trends inform our sense of what the future might hold and help us to act accordingly.
Take a yearning for pizza for example… Cognition encompasses everything from knowing/remembering what pizza is (and that you like it)…to realizing that you are hungry and making plans to have it delivered.
In order for our finite minds to make sense of the near infinite details of our surroundings 
however, a large part of cognition involves the organization of our thoughts into associations or categories. These might range from “things one might find in a kitchen” to “people I think are cute”. Simple symbols such as the word “face” are used to group more complex learned associations such as those between noses, lips, eyes and smiles.
Although important, these “cognitive categories” are overlapping and not always clearly distinct…so keep this in mind as we break down the concept of cognition itself into some of its more widely recognized pieces.
The words perception, attention, memory and executive function are one
way of divvying up the processes involved in how we think. All of the above will be involved throughout your journey towards satisfying that pizza craving. Let’s use some specific points to illustrate their role in the overall process of attaining such a dinner goal.
Perception, in this case, of the fact that you feel hungry and that there is no food in the fridge, is what gets the whole process moving. It involves seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and or smelling your surroundings, allowing you to respond appropriately.
Memory plays the obvious role of storing the name of your favorite pizza parlor. It also enables you to dial the number given by the operator and give directions to your house. Some different components include short term/working memory, long-term memory and subconscious/implicit knowledge.
Executive Function enables the planning of logistics, such as timing the pizza delivery to coincide with the arrival of your scrabble buddies. Improvising (guessing what toppings everyone will enjoy), problem solving (figuring how much to tip) and controlling impulses (not ruining your appetite by eating a whole bag of Doritos while waiting) also come into play here.
Attention processes kick in by having you shift your focus from reading the Sunday funnies to answering the door upon hearing that long awaited knock. They also help in multi-tasking a slice of pizza with figuring out how to nail that triple word score all while ignoring the heckling antics of your so called “friends”.
Again, although separated for the purposes of our discussion here, it is the interplay of all of these systems working simultaneously which makes up the process of cognition; allowing us to adapt to our surroundings and take action towards obtaining our goals.
Sep 18, 2008
Always enjoy your work, Gregg, where can I get more?
Sep 19, 2008
More pizza?
Sep 22, 2008
It seems like a big town with some specialised areas, some services near skilled areas and some businesses that do similar things located all over town.
Sep 22, 2008
Cheers Logan,
Browsing our blog and signing up for our newsletter is the best way to read more along the same lines. I’ve also written a couple of pieces for Sharpbrains.com.
Oct 06, 2008
Talk about pizza – I’m from South Africa and was au pairing in the US – Well being there, here and in Israel I must say there pizza’s are the best – WISH SOMEONE COULD “MAIL” ME ONE!
Oct 09, 2008
[...] Health writes What is Cognition?: Cognition literally means “to know”. Knowledge can be thought of as memories formed from the [...]
Oct 09, 2008
Thanks for submitting this post to our blog carnival. We just published the 40th edition of Brain Blogging and your article was featured!
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Shaheen
Oct 10, 2008
[...] What is cognition? [...]
Sep 30, 2009
I have to strongly disagree with a comment a doctor made referencing definition of cognitive. He said it means to know. One could have a disorder where they know, however, their short term memory being impaired can hinder the knowing enough. This is a very dangerous comment, esp. regarding children with ADD. Many of whom when tested score on the level of Genious. However, while under the stress of recall memory, organization, etc. They are being labelled as incompetant, when that is not at all the case. I wish for this doctor to review the comment and repost. He is very, with respect to his opinion, but being a doctor, very wrong. Thank you.
Sep 30, 2009
Please review some teachings from Dr. Dror of the UK, in regards to cognitive psychology. He gives some very insightful examples to allow one to understand cognitive understanding/psychology. The cognition of one person can strongly be hindered by his own personal opinion, therefore hindering his ability to see the truth. I am prime example of Dr. Dror facts vs. theory in my own personal life. Besides ones experience in life cannot be measured by the experience of another. Each one different. This model of knowledge based on one test, is quite dismissive of the personal ability of another person. Extremely limiting and bias, at best, Dangerous. Like teaching a child to like vegetables,it is very simple actually. A child may believe they do not like them because they are good for them. Therefore, no desire to aquire a taste. My simple explanation would be, if you do not try your vegetables, you may miss your most favorite food in the world. In that, a limited mind may miss the opportunity to learn, understand, aquire knowledge, fact based. You can know everything and or anything, however, if processing is hindered, by time, even, does not mean the person does not know. It is like a computer on dial up vs. high speed. If a person is on dial up, does not mean the information is not available to process. Person dimissed, many may loose out on the gifts that person may have to offer. Due to a cognitive theory. A theory is not a fact, that is why it is still a theory. A fact is in fact, a fact.