Make Your Point > Archived Issues > COGNITIVE
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pronounce
COGNITIVE:
Say it "KOG nih tiv."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Recently we checked out the silly word cogitate, "to think hard," which looks like it should be sisters with today's word, cognitive, "related to thinking."
But their resemblance is just a coincidence!
The words cognitive and cognition come from a Latin one, cognoscere, that means "to recognize, or to get to know." That's why they look so much like the word recognize.
Cogitate, on the other hand, comes from a Latin word that breaks down into co and agitare, literally "moving together" or "driving together." Could you explain why? If you're not sure, you can find the explanation here, under the definition.
Anyway, while we're checking out the brainy words cognition and cognitive today, see if you can recall an anatomical-sounding term for "brainy, smart, or intellectual:" it's ce____al.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
Cognition is the act of thinking or knowing, or the process of learning and using what you've learned.
And something cognitive involves thinking, knowing, learning, or using what you've learned.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Adjective: "She took a cognitive test;" "They have some cognitive biases;" "As we reach old age, we experience a cognitive decline."
Other forms:
Cognition, cognitively.
how to use it:
The word "cognitive" has a formal, scientific tone.
We use it often in phrases like these:
1. "Cognitive test" and "cognitive testing." These test a person's mental functioning.
2. "Cognitive biases." These are flaws in how we think or remember. We all have some.
3. "Cognitive ability," "cognitive function," and the lack thereof: "cognitive impairment," "cognitive deficits," and "cognitive decline."
4. "Cognitive science," "cognitive psychology," "cognitive neuroscience," "cognitive neuropsychology," etc. These fields focus on the function of the mind.
5. "Cognitive dissonance" is that painful mismatch that sometimes crops up between your beliefs and your behavior. If I'm a vegetarian, but I help myself to a bowl of refried beans, pretending I don't know they're cooked in lard? Then I'm feeling the pain of cognitive dissonance.
There's more, of course. Like cognitive strategies for studying and reading and solving problems, and cognitive behavioral therapy--that's powerful stuff.
Aside from those common phrases, we can also talk about cognitive issues, powers, faculties, approaches, development, etc.
examples:
"Cognitive labor: the process of anticipating, planning and monitoring that is often required in household tasks."
— Jennifer Miller, New York Times, 27 May 2020
"Observing how some companies have, over the past decade, transformed troves of personal data into profit while displaying a wanton attitude to securing such data makes [John Dylan Haynes, a professor of neuroscience] wary of the growing consumer BCI [brain-computer interface] industry. 'I’d be very careful about giving up our cognitive information to companies,' he said."
— Oscar Schwartz, The Guardian, 24 October 2019
has this page helped you understand "cognitive"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "cognitive" without saying "mental" or "rational."
try it out:
Think of something that, for you, demands a great deal of thinking and concentration. Fill in the blank: "I find it cognitively demanding to _____."
Example: "I find it cognitively demanding to do calculations without paper."
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is "Faces & Feelings."
If the word you're studying were a facial expression, what would it look like? Maybe one of the seven universal facial expressions, the ones identified by the psychologist Paul Ekman.
In each issue, take a handful of words and assign each to an emotion it inspires. I'll list my answers at the bottom of each issue. Yours might be different from mine, which is okay--words, and emotions, are complex and personal! The goal here is just to interact with our words, to tie them more securely into memory by connecting them to emotion and to the face.
Try this set today. Match each face on the left to a term on the right:
rejectamenta
resplendent
restive
Rhadamanthine
rigamarole
risible
roughshod
review this word:
A. SOBER and PRAGMATIC.
B. INTUITIVE and EMOTIONAL.
C. SPRIGHTLY and IMAGINATIVE.
2. Giving an example of a cognitive bias, Scientific American says, _____
A. "An extinct tree grows in India’s Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve...Well, it’s not exactly extinct."
B. "We have a strong tendency to predict the most optimistic outcome and therefore to prepare for the best-case scenario rather than the worst one."
C. "[The virus] manifests itself in different populations in diverse and confusing ways, depending on age, environmental and social conditions, blood type, form of exposure, and other interacting factors."
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Recently we checked out the silly word cogitate, "to think hard," which looks like it should be sisters with today's word, cognitive, "related to thinking."
Cognition is the act of thinking or knowing, or the process of learning and using what you've learned.
Part of speech:
The word "cognitive" has a formal, scientific tone.
"Cognitive labor: the process of anticipating, planning and monitoring that is often required in household tasks."
Explain the meaning of "cognitive" without saying "mental" or "rational."
Think of something that, for you, demands a great deal of thinking and concentration. Fill in the blank: "I find it cognitively demanding to _____."
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
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