Cognition is the process of knowing. It encompasses all experiences of consciousness by which knowledge is acquired, as distinguished from experiences of feeling or willing. These experiences include the processes of perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, and reasoning. Cognition is also a branch of psychology. Cognitive psychologists study the physiological mechanisms that occur in the brain as a function of conscious knowing. Short and long-term memory, visual-spatial determination, problem solving, and language development are a few of the aspects cognitive psychologists refer to when talking about cognition. Cognitive science also entails studies of artificial intelligence, age-related changes in memory and learning, and the development of dementia (a condition marked by a decline in an individual's ability to think and learn).

One of the most basic cognitive functions is the ability to conceptualize, or group individual items together as instances of a single concept or category. Concepts provide the fundamental framework...