cognition
kog-NISH-uhn
/kɒɡˈnɪʃ.ən/
The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.
Focuses on processing information, reasoning, memory, and analytical intellect.
The story behind the word. From Latin 'com-' (together) + 'gnoscere' (to know). The root gives us words like recognize, incognito, and diagnosis.
Word relationships
- reasoning: Reasoning is one component of broader cognition.
- incognizance: State of being unaware or lacking mental recognition.
Commonly confused with
- recognition: Recognition is identifying something previously known; cognition is the whole process of knowing.
Word family
- cognitive (adjective): Relating to cognition.
- cognizant (adjective): Having knowledge or awareness.
Collocations
- human cognition
- cognitive decline
- cognitive load
Example sentences
- "Sleep deprivation exerts a negative impact on human cognition and memory retrieval." Cognitive psychology
Memory hook
COG-nition: the cogs in your brain spinning to compute information. Brain cogs processing facts.
When not to use
Do not use to describe purely emotional reactions without informational processing.
Fun facts
- Cognitive neuroscience emerged as a field only in the late 1970s.
Related words
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