Cognition is the process of forming thoughts and acquiring information through our senses. It includes memory, language, attention, and problem solving. While universal, cognitive differences exist due to a combination of nature and nurture. Identical twins raised in different environments may still exhibit similarities in personality, suggesting a genetic predisposition.
Cognitive processes, commonly referred to as cognition, are the many processes that work together in the formation of thought. Cognition helps us acquire information and draw conscious and subconscious conclusions about the world around us. Our conventional five senses are used in this complex process as a means of gathering information.
The specific definition of cognition is somewhat vague, with a significant amount of interdisciplinary debate over its exact meaning. The Latin root of cognition is cognoscene, which translates to “conceptualize”, “recognize” and “know”. Cognitive processes can be defined as including all information processing even at a subconscious level or strictly as the ability to think and reason, which is an exclusive conscious event of the human being. Many anthropologists and other scholars in various disciplines regard the ability to consciously process information as the defining human characteristic.
To understand the complexity of cognitive processes, it is necessary to have a broad perception of how humans generally see the world. There is a plethora of information around us at all times, enabling decisions to be made about the environment. These decisions can be trivial, like what color of shirt to wear, or life-saving, like what to do in an emergency situation. The process of taking information available through our senses and translating it into conclusions or actions is made possible by cognition.
Some specific processes involved in cognition can be memory, association, language and attention. Other related cognitive processes are concept formation, pattern recognition, imagination, and problem solving. It’s important to realize that these processes overlap in nature and often work together in complex ways to formulate conclusions about the external and internal worlds.
While these cognitive processes are universal, there are person-specific differences that are not fully understood. These differences are the driving force between decision making and perspective. There are numerous schools of thought on the origin of cognitive differences. Some argue that there is a genetic predisposition that determines personality differences, and others believe that these traits are more driven by experience, while most are consistent with the idea that a combination of nature and nurture make us who we are.
If identical twins were raised in the same family, chances are they may be similar in many ways but still different in personality. They are genetically identical but still have different cognitive processes that shape how they make sense of the world. This is an example of how their experiences, or nurturing, made them differ. Conversely, if these twins were separated at birth and raised in different environments, they may still exhibit some similarities in personality, giving evidence in favor of a genetic predisposition in the personality.
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