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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.