Cognition refers the mental process that is involved in knowledge acquisition and comprehension. As such, the process involves thinking, knowing, remembering, exercising discretions and solving problems. They are higher level brain activities and include language leaning, perception and imagination as well as planning. Precisely, cognition is how humans think. The study of how individuals think can be traced back to the time of ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. According to Plato’s approach, people gain understanding of the world by first discovering the basic principles buried deep inside them after which they rationally think to create knowledge. This aspect can also be referred to as rationalism. Later this concept was also to be supported by Rene Descartes and lNoam Chomsky both philosophers. On the other hand, Aristotle on his part believed that individuals acquire knowledge through observing the environment around them. This essay discusses cognition through defining what it is, explaining what it is and detailing factors that affect cognition. In order to achieve the same, the essay gives a historical definition of Cognition and what it entails, and explains both environmental and biological factors affecting cognition.
What is cognition?
Some of the earliest definitions of cognition include Neisser's which explains cognition to be that process of transforming sensory input, reducing, elaborating, storing, recovering and subsequently using them (Neisser, 2014). Bases on this definition we can broadly analyze them as follows:
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Firstly, cognition involves the transformation of the sensory inputs. In this aspect, there is a need to understand how the brain transforms sensory inputs. As an individual sees their surroundings, smells or hears whatever happens around. The signals first get absorbed into the brains which then transforms them to what it can understand. All the five senses are thus transformed into the brain's language. This involves a perceptual process, and it is what allows the brain to take in the signals transforming them into what it can understand. For example, when one sports a flying object, the information is recorded by the eyes which transmit the neural signal to the brain ( Farah et al., 2008) . The brain having understood the signal sends a signal to one's muscles in which case they could run away if at all the object was going to hit them.
Secondly, cognition involves the process of reducing sensory information. The world is filled with endless activities and just everything existing in it is a form of signal to a person. Therefore, an individual experiences several senses in their surrounding as they exist in the world. In order for one to make meaning of all the incoming information, there is a need to reduce them down to them mist fundamental. For example, when one goes into a noisy market, there often are different hawkers shouting about their products, touts touting, vehicle noises, fumes from cars pollution, and so many colors of clothes worn by various people. Amidst all these happenings the brain is to select the few of interest to an individual. That is the concept of reducing. Also in a case where one is reading a textbook or attending, say, psychology lecture, one cannot remember everything. Instead, the brain reduces the experience of the lecture or book reading to critical concepts or ideas that one can remember. Therefore, rather than remember all the class members or the pictures and coloring of the book read, one naturally retains the memory of the concepts critical to their studies. Such a process is what is defined as the reducing experience of the brain and is a part of the cognition process.
Thirdly, cognition involves elaborating the information received. After the brain has received and reduced information to make it more memorable or understandable for an individual, the next process is elaborating the information received. As individual reconstruct the reduced information to form memories, they elaborate on them. For instance, if one was narrating about an even that took place over last December, as they weave their story, they could find themselves adding some details that were not originally part of the memory. A similar case occurs when one tries to recall the items in a shopping list. In such a case on may find themselves adding certain items analogous to the ones they wrote in the list thinking they are actually the ones they wanted to buy. In some instances, the elaboration process happens when an individual tries to remember something. In a case when one cannot recall the information the brain often feels it with what seems relevant.
The fourth is storage and recovering of information as a part of cognition. In the field of cognitive psychology, memory id often regarded as a paramount aspect. How one remembers, whatever they remember and that which they forget reveals substantially how their cognitive process operates. While people may think that a person’s memory operate like a video camera that records everything smoothly and stores for future recovery, the human brain is very complex and does not operate in a similar way to a video camera. The brain has a long and short term memory. Short-term memory lasts very briefly, often between 20 to 30 seconds. However, long-term memory, on the other hand, can be enduring and very stable. As opposed to short term, long term memory may last year or even decades. Also, memory could be fragile or fallible. In some cases an individual may just forget, however in others, they may undergo effects of misinforming leading to the formation of falls memories.
The fifth is that cognition involves the use of information. It is not only about the things that happen in pones surrounding that are sent in as signals and stored in future memory, but cognition also involves using the information stored. The thoughts about the information received and the mental processes that accompany such thoughts influence one’s action is a function of cognition. The individual’s attention the world around them, their memory about the past incidences, and understanding of language, personal discretion or judgment about the world and different phenomenon and the problem-solving abilities are a function of cognition. One's cognition defines how they interact with their environment and their overall behavior.
Factors Affecting Cognition
As a child grows, one of the most essential aspects of their growth is Cognition. Cognitive development encompasses both emotional and mental growth (Augoustinos, Walker, & Donaghue, 2014). However many factors determine the development of cognition. Therefore for both the infants and unborn children, these factors are imperative. The factors affecting cognitive development can be broadly grouped into two: biological and environmental factors.
Biological Factors
The biological factors can be both controllable and uncontrollable (Figlio, Guryan, Karbownik, & Roth, 2014) . These factors affect mental organs development in a person and therefore influences cognitive development. The biological factors include the following:
Hereditary Aspects
Genetics have been proven to play a huge role in a person’s cognitive development. Children also inherit their intelligence from their parents. In fact, some scholars have also argued that one could not control the cognition of a child since it is entirely dependent on the hereditary factors. At the population level, genes account for about 50% and 70% of cognition variation. This implies that the genetic difference between individuals account for 50% to 70% variation in how they would perform on tests of their cognitive abilities (Figlio, Guryan, Karbownik, & Roth, 2014). The cognitive abilities include reasoning skills, memory, processing speed, and knowledge among others.
Nutrition
Prado and Dewey, (2014) explains, cognition involves a complex set of mental functions. Such functions include perception, memory, and thinking. Among preschoolers, their cognitive skills can be predicted in their later school achievements. However, pones cognitive skills are influenced by their nutrition. Psychologist posits that there is a strong relationship between an improved nutrition and individual brain optimal function. It is because, Nutrients provide people with building blocks that are critical in cell proliferation, neuron-transmitter as well as hormone metabolism all important in cognition. These are also some of the important as constituents of enzymes functionality in the brain. It is important to note that brain development is faster in early stages of a person. Therefore when a child is fed well during their early stages, they benefit from the nutrition to achieve their brain development. Evidence suggest that deficiency of nutrition can result in an adverse effect on the brain’s development. For instance, a deficiency of folic acid among infants of between 21 and 28 days of conception will expose the infant to congenital malformation. This is also referred to as the neural tube effect and occurs immediately when the neural tube closes. This is a crucial factor in an infant brain development. It is because, during such a stage, the brain structure of the infants experience a reversible change in the brain function and structures. Such changes only occur well if there is an adequate supply of folic acid. Since the rapid brain, growth occurs between the first two years of a child’s life. Usually, by the age of 2, the brain of a child has reached approximately 80% of an adult’s brain weight. Although other brain development takes place at puberty, much of the brain is developed in childhood, and as such if a child is malnourished they are likely to have a poor cognitive development and the reverse. Children should thus be feed well in a balanced diet to ensure their brains maximally benefit from their nutrition for optimal growth and development. When properly fed, a child will experience healthy brain development and further cognitive development.
Sensory Organs
According to Nisbett, Aronson, Blair, Dickens, Flynn, Halpern, and Turkheimer, (2012), sensory organs enable children to recognize things around them with ease. There are five senses, and a different organ recognizes each. For example, the ear perceives the sound, the nose smells, the eye sees, the skin feels among other sensory organs. Children who suffer disabilities with some of their sensory organs develop cognitive skills in a slower manner as opposed to those that are not having disabilities. These cognitive elements can also be affected by the general health of a person. Using their five senses, children begin to learn about their surroundings instinctively. The five senses of taste, sight, smell, hearing, etc. enable a child to have a sensory experience necessary for their cognitive development. It, therefore, calls for children to be granted an ample time to make use of their sensory organs to understand their environmental and grow their cognitive skills.
The sensory experiences as a child interacts with their environment enable them to build their innate curiosity. The sensory skills of a child are what they use to send signals to the brain that it process and interpret in the process of cognition (Nisbett, Aronson, Blair, Dickens, Flynn, Halpern, and Turkheimer, 2012). Hence the more senses a child uses, the better they become in them. Understanding that the first two years of a child is when much of the cognitive skills are developed, the child should make use of their senses best at this stage to ensure that their cognition is strongly enhanced. During this stage, sensorimotor stage, a child morphs from using their senses to understand their surroundings to develop a memory. It, therefore, follows that during the first two years of a child, more and more senses should be put in practice to enable them to enhance their cognitive development. It is no wonder play is good for children especially in enhancing their brain development because whenever the child is out playing they utilize most of their sensory organs.
Environmental Factors
A number of environmental variables that interact with a child throughout their growth affect their cognitive ability. Environmental stimuli and parental nurturance are very crucial in brain development and therefore influences a child cognition or cognitive competence. Although the environmental factors are mostly external and controllable, they contribute immensely to the cognitive development of individuals. These environmental factors can be grouped into four: economic factors, external stimuli, family and society and play. Noteworthy is the fact that they apply differently to individuals.
Economic Factors
Nisbett, Aronson, Blair, Dickens, Flynn, Halpern, and Turkheimer, (2012) points out that the economic status of a family determines so many factors in the growth of a child. Firstly a child from a family with high socioeconomic status will be able to acquire most if not all the required nutritional factors in their growth. It is because the family has a favorable income and can afford healthy foods or a balanced diet to ensure a healthy development of the child. As discussed earlier, nutrition affects the brain development and hence the cognitive development of a child. Children born of low-income families however experience deficiencies in nutrition, and some cases may suffer malnutrition leading to poor brain development. Also, research has shown that children raised from low-income families often are exposed to so much stress impairing their brain development and subsequent cognitive function. Due to the vicious cycle of poverty, children born from low-income families may have a high chance of remaining poor their entire life. The brains of poor children never develop optimally and in turn, makes them miss on social and economic opportunities.
Also, children from low-income families tend to be mostly separated from their parents due to the harsh struggle to fend for their families ( Nisbett, Aronson, Blair, Dickens, Flynn, Halpern, & Turkheimer, 2012 ). Such maternal separation also adds to the stress on the children. As pointed out earlier, stress affects a child’s cognitive development implying that such children are more vulnerable to low cognitive development. However, children from wealthy family often have more time with their parents who end up teaching them and developing their cognitive skills.
Generally, children raised from families with low socio-economic status are deprived of so many opportunities as compared to their counterparts. They often lack play materials and are left to survive on their own, the kind of care given to them is often poor and in most cases, they are left alone as their mothers go to fend for their food. The amount of stress that comes with such a life, coupled with poor nutrition makes their lives stressful and unbearable. Such a life offers very little when it comes to optimal brain development. They end up having poor brain development and a subsequent low cognitive development. For such children their learning skills are weak, and their ability to grasp language or speak properly is also hampered ( Farah et al., 2008) . The preceding underscores the need for proper feeding and raising of children to ensure a proper brain development as well as better cognitive development.
External Stimuli
The external stimuli play a significant role in cognitive development. A child exposed to various external stimuli such as textbooks and toys exercises the use of their sensory organs which are important in their brain development (Augoustinos, Walker, & Donaghue, 2014). Consequently, such children often have a better cognitive development as opposed to those who have limited access to such external stimuli as books. External stimuli generally affect an individual’s sensory-motor intelligence. The mediation process that takes place between stimulus and response impacts on the brain development and subsequent cognitive development. When children interact with toys, they exercise creativity. Often such children are able to play with the toys producing their brains to memorize various aspects of the toys and how they should be operated for instances. ( Farah et al., 2008) Such circumstances jog the mind making their cognitive skills to improve.
Family and Society
The immediate surroundings in a child’s environment are the family and society. They interact with the child from birth to maturity and throughout their entire lives. As a result, family and society play a momentous role in the cognitive development of the child. When a child interacts mostly with other people, they tend to acquire a lot of knowledge ( Nisbett, Aronson, Blair, Dickens, Flynn, Halpern, & Turkheimer, 2012 ). They learn quickly their language among other things they observe from the people around them. However, children who interact less with people often are gloomy, and slow learners are becoming less bright. The people around children help them\ build their language skills as well as their speaking skills. The children acquire most of such skills from the people who interact with them on a daily basis. That is why, as children grow up, they are most likely to speak to their mothers or in some cases the help. Such similarities occur as a result of them learning from their surroundings.
Play
It is prudent for children to play. Although the majority of people underestimate the value of play, it offers a fundamental impact on the child’s cognitive development. Scientists often recommend for children to be offered with toys that can help build their cognitive skills ( Nisbett, Aronson, Blair, Dickens, Flynn, Halpern, & Turkheimer, 2012 ). Such skills include the ability to recognize numbers or letters. Playing with their peers also enables a child to build confidence which may boost their cognitive development. As children play with their peers, they are able to boost their social confidence and self-esteem which enables them to exercise their brains further developing their cognitive skills.
Conclusion
Cognition is a mental process that is involved in knowledge acquisition and comprehension. The process involves thinking, knowing, remembering, exercising discretions and solving problems. As pointed out in this paper, they are higher level brain activities and include language learning, perception, and imagination as well as planning. Precisely, cognition is how humans think. As a child grows, one of the essential aspects of their growth is Cognition. Cognitive development encompasses both emotional and mental growth. However many factors determine the development of cognition. In explaining what cognition is, the essay has discussed Nesser’s definition of Cognition which includes five aspects. The five aspects have been identified to include the process of transforming sensory input, reducing, elaborating, storing, recovering and subsequently using them. Additionally, the essay has discussed the factors affecting cognitive development among individuals. Following the above, the essay findings include that the brain of a child experience up to about 80% of growth within the first two years. Therefore, to make a change, most of the factors would yield positive outcome within the first two years. The factors discussed are classified into two group: biological and environmental factors. The biological factors include hereditary and genetic factors, nutritional factors and sensory organs. On the other end, the environmental factors have been found to include economic, external stimuli, play and family and society.
References
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Neisser, U. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Classic edition . Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
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