Cognition

Cognition starts with perception. Perception, which occurs in space and time, provides the general framework for cognition; perception is also the process of becoming aware of a stimulus, which can be external or internal. The next step is conceptualization: after realizing the existence of something, we try to figure out what it is: the percept becomes a concept. For example, cognition happens at the instance when the perception "something coming our way" crystallizes as the concept "dog." If the dog is unfriendly, we will use judgment to evaluate our newly acquired knowledge of the situation in an effort to avoid injury. Fortunately, while problem-solving is a key application of the power of judgment in everyday life, not all problems are unpleasant. Working on a mathematical problem, for instance, can be a pleasant, one could say esthetic, experience; the same could be said for any problems requiring creativity and ingenuity, abilities of a higher order than simpler methods, such as the trial-and-error approach. In the realm of the scientific imagination, cognition can, in rare moments, occur as an unexpected flash of illumination. The problem appears to solve itself. One such extraordinary experience is an often quoted mathematical discovery by the French mathematician and philosopher Henri Poincaré (1854-1912). Unable to fall asleep one night, Poincaré thought about a tough problem that he had been grappling with: "Ideas rose in crowds; I felt them collide until pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable combination. By the next morning I had established the existence of a new class of Fuchian functions."