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Cognition

The term cognition is used in several different loosely related ways. In psychology it is used to refer to the mental processeses of an individual, with particular relation to a view that argues that the mind has internal mental states (such as beliefs, desires and intentions) and can be understood in terms of information processing, especially when a lot of abstraction or concretization is involved, or processes such as involving knowledge, expertise or learning for example are at work. It is also used in a wider sense to mean the act of knowing or knowledge, and may be interpreted in a social or cultural sense to describe the emergent development of knowledge and concepts within a group.

Table of contents

1 Cognition in mainstream psychology 1.1 Influence and influences 2 Cognitive ontology 3 Cognition as compression 4 Cognition as a social process 5 Cognition in a cultural context 6 Summary 7 See also 8 External links

Cognition in mainstream psychology

Empirical research into cognition is usually scientific and quantitative, or involves creating models to describe or explain certain behaviours.

Whilst few people would deny that cognitive processes are the responsibility of the brain, a cognitive theory will not necessarily make any reference to the brain or any other biological process (compare neurocognitive). It may purely describe behaviour in terms of information flow or function. Relatively recent fields of study such as cognitive science and neuropsychology aim to bridge this gap, using cognitive paradigms to understand how the brain implements these information processing functions (see also cognitive neuroscience), or how pure information processing systems (e.g. computers) can simulate cognition (see also artificial intelligence). The branch of psychology which studies brain injury to infer normal cognitive function is called cognitive neuropsychology. The links of cognition to evolutionary demands are studied through the investigation of animal cognition.

The theoretical school of thought derived from the cognitive approach is often called cognitivism.

The phenomenal success of the cognitive approach can be seen by its current dominance as the core model in contemporary psychology (usurping behaviorism in the late 1950s).

Influence and influences

• Psychology (particularly cognitive psychology), cognitive science and psychophysics
• Cognitive neuroscience, neurology and neuropsychology
• Behavioral economics and Behavioral finance
• Artificial intelligence and cybernetics
• Ergonomics and user interface design
• Philosophy of mind
• Linguistics especially psycholinguistics
• Economics especially experimental economics

• Computer science and information theory, where attempts at artificial intelligence, collective intelligence and robotics focus on mimicking living beings' capacities for cognition, or applying the experience gathered in one place by one being to actions by another being elsewhere.
• Philosophy, epistemology and ontology
• Moral philosophy where it deals with the problem of ignorance, often seen as the opposite of cognition.
• Biology and neuroscience
• Mathematics and probability
• Physics, where observer effects are studied in depth mathematically.

On the level of an individual mind, an emergent behavior might be the formation of a new concept, 'bubbling up' from below the conscious level of the mind. A simple way of stating this is that beings preserve their own attention and are at every level concerned with avoiding interruption and distraction. Such cognitive specialization can be observed in particular in language, with adults markedly less able to hear or say distinctions made in languages to which they were not exposed in youth.

Cognition as compression

Cognition as a social process

In education, for instance, which has the explicit task in society of developing child cognition, choices are made regarding the environment and permitted action that lead to a formed experience. This is in turn affected by the risk or cost of providing these, for instance, those associated with a playground or swimming pool or field trip. The macro-choices made by the political economy in effect will be extremely influential on the micro-choices made by the teachers or children. So at least on this level, there is obvious feedback between the economic choice and the psychology of the activity, and philosophy of rationalizations proposed.

In social cognition, face perception in human babies emerges by the age of two months.

Cognition in a cultural context

Other concepts which seem to have arisen only recently (in the last century) include increased expectations for human rights. In this case, an example of an 'emergent behavior' might perhaps be the use of the mass media to publicize inequities in the human condition, perhaps using highly portable cameras and telephones.

Summary

Cognition is a diffuse term and is used in radically different ways by different disciplines. In psychology, it refers to an information processing view of an individual's psychological functions. Wider interpretations of the meaning of cognition link it to the development of concepts. Individual minds, groups, organizations, and even larger coalitions can be modelled as societies which cooperate to form concepts. The autonomous elements of each 'society' would have the opportunity to demonstrate emergent behavior.

See also

• animal cognition
• animal communication
• cognitive ontology
• cognitive neuropsychology
• cognitive neuroscience
• cognitive psychology
• cognitive science
• cognitivism (psychology)
• emergence
• functional neuroimaging
• gestalt effect
• information foraging
• neurocognitive
• temporal cognition

• Cognition An international journal publishing theoretical and experimental papers on the study of the mind.

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