Essay Prompt A
Cognition is a term used to describe all the mental processes that involve acquisition and comprehension of knowledge. Some of the cognition processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and solving a problem. Cognition involves high-level brain functions that make use of imagination, perception, language, and planning. It is a simple way of understanding and mastering the world around us. For example, it would be difficult to remember every life detail included words and stories in daily conversation. However, the brain is able to conceptualize and pick the valuables from all life experiences. Cognition is not just what an individual brain can do, but is distributed in the larger environment.
Cognition involves taking in sensory input and transforming it into useful information that the brain can make sense of. Sensations from the world around reach people through hearing, taste, smell, sight, and touch ( Pereira, Smith, & Yu, 2014) . They are then transformed into signals that are understandable to the brain and can call for action. There is numerous sensory information that one can experience in a single day ( Schank, 2015) . It is practically impossible to receive and perceive all of them at once. This is why the brain functions to reduce the sensory experiences and narrow them down to the basics or fundamentals.
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Cognition depends on learning to receive and analyze sensory information received. It is the function of the brain to receive sensory signals and perceive it to elicit the appropriate response. However, the ability of the brain to analyze a signal depends on the accumulated knowledge stored in the memory ( Saunders & Frazier, 2017) . Every day is a learning opportunity for the brain and the individual. Once given information has been acquired and stored in the brain, any sensory signal related to it will be effectively perceived and responded to. Without the aspect of learning, the brain cannot make sense out of the signal. This means that for the brain to complete the function of cognition, learning must first occur.
Cognition depends on growth and development factors. The growth and development of the brain start at the fetus level and continues throughout the life of an individual. The growth process depends on both individual and external factors ( Pereira et al., 2014) . For example, young children are at their developmental stages, and they require optimum conditions such as peace, learning opportunities, and socialization for their brains to develop fully. Cognitive functions such as judging and problem-solving depend on the level at which and individual’s brain is developed and its ability to make sense out of small details ( Herrera, Wang, & Mather, 2019) . This proves that even though cognition is a function of the brain, it begins from the growth and development conditions an individual was exposed to as a child.
Other environmental factors, such as culture and people around, also affect cognition processes. Once a child is born, the immediate surrounding consists of the family members who play an integral role in the child’s initial life. Later on, the larger society sets in as the child begins to interact with the other society members ( Smith & Zeller, 2017) . The child will learn and adopt values and skills based on the people around them. Any cognition response will be based on the things learned from the people around them.
Conclusion
Cognition is a brain function that involves taking in and comprehending knowledge. The brain can only comprehend and respond to something familiar. This is why I support the claim by arguing that cognition is distributed in a larger environment. Some of the external and environmental factors that affect cognition include learning opportunities, individual skills, people around us, and culture. The new things learned each day are stored as memory in parts of the brain. They will then be used to makes sense of and respond to sensory information.
References
Herrera, A. Y., Wang, J., & Mather, M. (2019). The gist and details of sex differences in cognition and the brain: How parallels in sex differences across domains are shaped by the locus coeruleus and catecholamine systems. Progress in neurobiology , 176 , 120-133. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301008218300054
Pereira, A. F., Smith, L. B., & Yu, C. (2014). A bottom-up view of toddler word learning. Psychonomic bulletin & review , 21 (1), 178-185. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-013-0466-4
Saunders, J. F., & Frazier, L. D. (2017). Body dissatisfaction in early adolescence: the coactive roles of cognitive and sociocultural factors. Journal of youth and adolescence , 46 (6), 1246-1261. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-016-0559-2
Schank, R. (2015). Machines that think are in the movies. What to think about machines that think , 132-135.
Smith, D. H., & Zeller, F. (2017). The death and lives of hitchBOT: the design and implementation of a hitchhiking robot. Leonardo , 50 (1), 77-78. Retrieved from: https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/LEON_a_01354
Essay Prompt B
Cognition involves multiple brain functions associated with the creation and conception of knowledge. Cognition is, therefore, a single term used to describe all higher-brain functions that involve receiving and perceiving sensory information. Cognitive science is defined as the study of how the human mind functions. This branch of science draws from several disciplines such as artificial intelligence, psychology, computer science, philosophy, and linguistics, among others, to explain the human mind by characterizing the nature of human knowledge, its form, usage, acquisition, and processing. In other words, cognitive science helps to shed insight into peoples’ learning processes, beliefs, and attitudes.
First, cognitive science is a combination of several disciplines that explains various functions of the human mind. Sectors such as artificial intelligence, linguistics, psychology, and are all examples of how people learn and implement knowledge ( Sawyer, 2006) .
Linguistics: There are many people who learn, speak, and even analyze several languages. At the time of birth, a child belongs to no linguistic group and begins by learning the language spoken by people around ( Hambrick, Macnamara, Campitelli, Ullén, & Mosing, 2016) . Even the parent language must be learned and memorized through the mind before one is able to speak fluently.
Psychology: Immordino-Yang and Yang (2017) defines psychology and the study of human behavior. The behaviors are controlled by factors such as culture, values, beliefs, attitudes, and how the immediate environment affects individuals. By studying psychology, one gains scientific knowledge of understanding all aspects of behavior and how an individual’s judgment is affected by continuous learning.
Artificial Intelligence: People continue to learn about and improve technology every day. Currently, technology has improved almost all life sectors. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that involves building smart machines that can operate as humans ( Hambrick et al., 2016) . AI replicates the human brain by storing information like memory and using it when required.
Cognitive science combines the disciplines to explain how people acquire knowledge through learning and use it to improve their lives. For the brain to sense and put sensory information into context, it must have learned about the information before and kept it as a memory in mind ( Sawyer, 2006) . The stored information involves remembering what is being sensed, interpreting to get the desired meaning, and required response. All these activities take place within the brain, and response is needed in a split second, or else the individual might be at risk ( Kolbert, 2017) . Learning is, therefore, the foundation of cognition because the knowledge gained each day is classified in the brain and stored.
By applying cognitive science, it becomes easy to understand beliefs and attitudes. Daily activities and behaviors are combinations of the environmental, cultural, and individual factors developed throughout an individual’s life. Individual traits are unique but can be predicted or categorized by cognitive scientists who understand the basic principles of behavior ( Hollan, Hutchins, & Kirsh, 2000) . The physical environment and culture also determine the attitudes and beliefs of members of a given society. The traits are a result of the things people learn from one another and inherit from the elderly members of society.
Conclusion
Cognitive science is a branch of science that involves studying the human mind and its functions. It combines several disciplines that explain human behaviors and reasoning. The functions of a human brain can be broadly categorized into learning, storing information in the form of knowledge, and using the knowledge to respond to sensory stimuli. Without learning, there is no knowledge or response. The knowledge one acquires and keeps also depends on the opportunities provided by society and the immediate environment. By applying cognitive science, people learn all the functions of the mind and how daily learning becomes the difference in human abilities and practices.
References
Hambrick, D. Z., Macnamara, B. N., Campitelli, G., Ullén, F., & Mosing, M. A. (2016). Beyond born versus made: A new look at expertise. In Psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 64, pp. 1-55). Academic Press. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079742115000328
Hollan, J., Hutchins, E., & Kirsh, D. (2000). Distributed cognition: toward a new foundation for human-computer interaction research. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) , 7 (2), 174-196. Retrieved from: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/353485.353487
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Yang, X. F. (2017). Cultural differences in the neural correlates of social–emotional feelings: An interdisciplinary, developmental perspective. Current opinion in psychology , 17 , 34-40. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X16302068
Kolbert, E. (2017). Why facts don’t change our minds: New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason. The New Yorker .
Sawyer, R. K. (2006). The new science of learning. The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences , 1 , 18.
