Words / B2

kog-NISHUN/kɒɡˈnɪʃn/

Cognition is the mental process of knowing, thinking, and understanding (usually uncountable): cognition and memory; social cognition. Cognitive is the adjective (already in the dictionary); thought is everyday. Cognition in the psychology extract is not a synonym for an IQ score. Mix-up: recognition; coalition. Do not write “a cognition” as a countable idea.

Meaning

The mental process of knowing, thinking, and understanding (usually uncountable).

Examples

• “Cognition in the psychology extract is not a synonym for “IQ score”.”
• “Social cognition featured in the child-development source, which is the thinking-about-people sense.”

Good to know

cognition; social / spatial cognition. Adjective: cognitive. Trap: recognition. Psychology and biology. Thinking and knowing as a process, not one test score.

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