Cognition plays an important role in how people interpret reality differently based on their own experiences and perspectives. Cognition is the process by which people make sense of their thoughts and perceptions in order to understand the world. It involves things like comprehension, problem solving, and forming opinions based on what we sense and already know. Because our behavior is based on our interpretations rather than objective reality, understanding cognition can help explain why people can view the same situation so differently.

1. Visual Imagination

2. Cognition
How can people look at a particular situation
and come to such completely different
conclusions? How can they hold such
different interpretations of reality?
Understanding such differences depends
upon recognizing the power of cognition.

3. None of us sees the events of our lives in a totally objective way.
Our views are determined by our own personal attitudes, values,
beliefs and expectations—and our own personal agendas that
are made up of our learned, but ever-changing, needs, wants,
fears, etc.
The best way to grasp our drastically different interpretations of
the world is to understand how important our perception of the
world is to the outcome of our lives.

4. Each person's point of view can make perfect sense
based on his/ own unique way of viewing the world.
Considering what goes into someone’s particular
world view (that conditions his/ her perception), can
make a tremendous difference in our ability to relate
or communicate to that individual.

5. As we have seen, Visual Perception deals with:
the discrimination of color, shapes, patterns. scale ,
distance between objects, background and foreground.
Cognition is a, high level, brain function dealing with
awareness, including:
• thought formation
• comprehension
• planning
• problem solving
• Memorization
• concentration
• self-monitoring

6. While the primary visual cortex codifies data, the
secondary visual cortex, as suggested earlier,
identifies it .
Also called the
“association cortex”, the
secondary visual
cortex employs higher
level visual processes, in
identifying the code by
association with other
known entities (decoding),
and locating its position
in space.

7. What is cognition?
 Cognition is a process by which individuals
interpret their thoughts and images in order to
make sense and give meaning to their world.
Cognition is also an associative process
between awareness and knowledge. It is the
formulation of opinion based on that which we
sense, perceive and that which we already
know.

8. Why is cognition important?
Cognition is important because
people’s behavior is based on their
interpretation of reality, not reality
itself.


9.  We don’t see reality. We interpret
what we see and call it reality
 The attribution process guides our
behavior, regardless of the truth of
the attribution.

11. Like perception, cognition, is also subject to error.
Here are some common errors:
Expectancy effects – we interpret things, the
way we expect them to be, rather than the way
they really are.
Selective observation – we tend to arrive at
those conclusions that support our world view.
Halo effect – we tend to generalize our
conclusions to areas beyond their sphere of
influence, allowing a single characteristic to
overshadow all others.

12. Contrast effects – the tendency to attribute a
greater difference between a thing perceived to
another than is the case.
Projection – the tendency to attribute familiar or
comfortable characteristics and feelings to other
things.
Stereotyping: the tendency to assign attributes
to something solely on the basis of the category
to which it is assigned.

13. Review of Human Information Processing
Pre and post-cognitive 5 step process:
1. Sensation - receiving information through the senses.
2. Perception - encoding the stimulus from the environment into
internal representation.
3. Cognition - decoding the internal representation (perception)
into meaning.
A. Association - comparing the encoded stimulus with
memorized representation.
B. Recognition - discovering the analogy of association
C. Realization - understanding the information within a
context

14. 4. Deliberation - formulating a response to the decoded
information
5. Taking action (reacting) - responding to the information
received
A. Internalizing - storing information for later use.
B. Externalizing - physically responding either
voluntarily or involuntarily.
Note: Involuntary actions might be autonomic or due to
lack of self control.