What Is Cognition?

What does it mean to think? Starting at infancy, thinking becomes a very normal human process. Thoughts come and go without effort. Some thoughts do take concentration and will power, but others are quite natural. In fact, animals also have cognitive functioning, but it is different than human cognitive functioning. There are six major areas of cognition that should be recognized. To understand normal mental function, one can learn about these areas of cognition. If a person were to be tested for optimal mental functioning, he would be questioned in each of the following areas.

Orientation
Orientation refers to a person’s position in relation to her environment. Consider a new college student attending orientation. She is learning where buildings are and how she will navigate the campus physically. She will also learn about systems in place and what path she will have to take academically in order to graduate. A person with good cognitive abilities will be able to orient themselves in new environments. When cognition becomes strained and difficult, the new environments, such as changing seasons and dates, will become difficult to recognize.

Memory
Memory involves immediate recall, short-term memory and long-term memory. Immediate recall is demonstrated in the ability of a waitress to repeat your order back to you before she goes to relay the message to the cooks. Getting your order (without the aid of an order ticket) to the cooks involves short term memory. Long term memory is, for the most part, permanent. The waitress will probably forget you and your order, but she will always remember the restaurant in which she worked. Lapses in memory and decreased capability for memory are signals of cognitive loss.

Ability to Focus Attention
Focusing requires more than just memory. It involves performing new calculations in the brain. Counting in odd intervals and saying the alphabet backwards are examples of cognitive abilities that require focus and attention.

Language and Performance
Language is an aspect of life that is often taken for granted. Language in itself may seem simple, but being able to perform based on language cues can signal higher cognitive functioning. Naming objects, responding to commands and even repeating a phrase that you hear all involve separate tasks. Combining language and performance indicates competent understanding of the language.

Motor and Sensory Function
Similar to language and performance is motor and sensory function. Instead of combining language and action though, one must combine sensory input and subsequent motor activity. Based on what you see, you may or may not be able to catch a ball, but a normal person should be able to climb onto a stool or wash a window or turn towards a voice. Babies learn these types of skills very early on.

Other Intellectual Functions
Cognitive functioning is not always as simple as the aspects listed above. Abstract thinking is the ability to think about things that are not physical or are not physically present. Problem solving, insight and judgment all require in depth and complicated cognitive processes. These cognitive functions may be the most influential in separating humans from animals. An animal can probably succeed in thinking in the other ways listed here, but they do not have the higher mental functioning that humans have.

Frances, Allen MD and First, Michael B. MD. Your Mental Health: A Layman’s Guide to
the Psychiatrist’s Bible. New York: Scribner, 1998.

• A Psychiatrist And Mental Illness
• A Step Toward Substance Abuse Can Lead To A Deep Hole Of Addiction
• A World Full Of Phobias
• All Children Are Different, But What Differences Are Normal? (information About Mental Retardation)
• Antisocial Personality Disorder
• Avoidant Personality Disorder
• Being Anxious Over Everything And Nothing
• Being Well Adjusted To Life May Involve Some Struggles
• Bipolar Disorders Are Difficult To Diagnose
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Cognitive Loss
• Common Illnesses That Psychiatrist Treat
• Coping With Physical Illness
• Defining The Science Of Psychiatry
• Dependent Personality Disorder
• Depressed Spirits And Major Depressive Disorder
• Fear And The Physical
• Fearing Fear Itself
• First Psychiatric Medications And Treatments
• Food And Thoughts: Does One Control The Other?
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Gratifying Impulses
• Has Psychiatry Gone Too Far? Has It Gone Far Enough?
• Histrionic Personality Disorder
• How Psychiatry Methods Evolved Over Time From Force To Healing
• Important Facts Regarding Psychiatry And Mental Illness
• Money Matters In Psychiatry
• Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• Obsessive-compulsive Personality Disorder
• Paranoid Personality Disorder
• Playing The School Game When It’s Hard
• Preparing A Life For Autism
• Psychiatric Malpractice And Standard Of Care
• Psychiatric Organizations And Their Contributions
• The Onset Of Dementia
• The Psychological Interacting With The Physical
• The Top Schools In Psychiatry
• The Truth About Obsessions And Compulsions
• Top Ten Misconceptions About Psychiatric Disorders
• Treatable Depression
• Treating Bipolar Disorder
• What Is Cognition?
• What Is Psychiatry?
• When Acting Out Is Serious
• When Personality Isn’t Personal
• When Reality Isn’t Real
• When Sleep Goes Wrong
• Who Is “i”?
• Who Was Freud?
• Psychiatric Treatments And Support
• Psychoanalysis And The Need For More Scientific Psychiatry
• Reason Behind The Madness
• Schizoid And Schizotypal Personality Disorders
• Self-diagnosis And Treatment Of Psychiatric Conditions
• The Aftermath Of Trauma
• The Beauty Of Sleeping
• The Beginnings Of Psychiatry
• The Controversy In The Classroom: Adhd Diagnosis
• The Importance Of Recognizing Psychiatric Issues
• The Majors And ‘minors’ Of Depression
• The Need For Psychiatrists In The Military