Cognition

What the heck is cognition???  Well, simply it is thinking.  Referring to all mental activities such as understanding, communicating, remembering and processing.  Concepts form that arrange our individual worlds, solve problems, and allow us to make decisions. 

Mental groupings, such as recognizing patterns of certain things, similar people, events, and objects -this is called the formation of concepts.  The concept “car” could be a variety of different things such as a Honda Civic or a Dodge Neon, a really tiny car, or a box car, a sports car, or even a Hummer.  If concepts didn’t exist, there would have to be a different word for every single thing!  The word “car” means a different thing to each and every person.  If there was no concept of car, then if someone said, “peel the fruit”  it would be quite confusing.  Which fruit is it of which they speak?

Another interesting aspect of cognition is the human mind’s ability to solve problems.  Trial and error is one way to get through a problem.  Also, there are algorithms -step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution.  Trying to find another word using all the letters in MOLPERB, using algorithms one would try each letter in a different position resulting is some 908,874 times trying different positions of letters.  This would be tiring.  So to make things easier, simple strategies are often used, called heuristics.  Just rearranging the letters MOLPERB -excluding letter combinations such as a “P” by a “B.” Interesting, no?

Another problem-solving strategy is insight.  Which is a sudden flash of inspiration.  A sudden realization of the solution to the problem at hand.  Insight brings a sense of satisfaction and happiness.  Jokes are enjoed when people suddenly realize an unexpected ending or a double meaning.  Here’s a joke that illustrates the sudden leap to a new perspective, rated funniest among 2 million ratings or 40,000 submitted jokes, in an Internet humor study co-sponsored by Richard Wiseman (2002) and the British Association for the Advancement of Science.  “A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground.  He doesn’t seem to be breathing, his eyes rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator:  ‘My friend is dead! What can I do?’ The operator, in a calm soothing voice says:  ‘Just take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.’ There is silence, then a shot is heard. The guy’s voice comes back on the line: ‘OK, now what?’ “

Now, decision making and judgement forming, -questions form, humans follow intuition.  Using the automatic information processing, intuitive judgements are formed instantaneously.  Apparently, decisions come from guessing things right, but mostly… intuition.