COGNITION (Latin cognitio, from cognoscere, to become acquainted with)  , in psychology, a term used in its most general sense for all modes of being conscious or aware of an object, whether material or intellectual . It is an ultimate mode of consciousness, strictly the presentation (through sensation or otherwise) of an object to consciousness; in its complete form, however, it seems to involve a judgment, i.e. the separation from other objects of the object presented . The psychological theory of cognition takes for granted the dualism of the mind that knows and the object known; it takes no account of the metaphysical problem as to the possibility of a relation between the ego and the non-ego, but assumes that such a relation does exist . Cognition is therefore distinct from emotion and conation; it has no psychological connexion with feelings of pleasure and pain, nor does it tend as such to issue in action . For the analysis of cognition-reactions see O . Kulpe, Outlines ofPsychology (Eng. trans., 1895), pp . 411 foil . ; E . B . Titchener, Experimental Psychology (1905), ii . 187 foil . On cognition generally, G .

F . Stout's

Analytic Psychology and Manual of Psychology; W . James's Principles of Psychology (189o), i .