Quotes About Cognition

Memory works in different ways for everybody. Different capacities, different directions, too. Sometimes memory helps you think, sometimes it impedes. Doesn't mean it's good or bad. Probably means it's no big deal.

Because brains packed with knowledge are yummy, that's why. They're nice and creamy. And sort of grainy at the same time.

reading too much useless information makes you 46% less likely to think clearly

Trying to avoid a thought can make it more active in your brain.

Decreased cognitive flexibility, including difficulty or increased difficulty with attentiveness, focus, processing, and concentration. You might feel like your processing speed or your ability to problem-solve is decreasing. Learning can be or feel more difficult or slower to cement, especially in later perimenopause.

To hold fast the positive in the negative, in the content of the presupposition, in the result, this is the most important feature in rational cognition.

People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

The brain is highly structured, but it is also extremely flexible. It's not a blank slate, but it isn't written in stone, either.

Reading or written language is a cultural invention that necessitated totally new connections among structures in the human brain underlying language, perception, cognition, and, over time, our emotions.

The thought processes that go through my head when I'm playing a game compared to the thought processes in real life are very, very different. And they're more interesting to me than what you think about when you're doing the dishes, cleaning the yard, watching TV, driving or watching a movie.

Have you ever noticed the fact that once you begin to think about something, you see it everywhere? Anyone who has ever begun the search for a new automobile can attest, from the moment you Google it, you begin to pass that model in traffic everywhere. Of course, they were there the whole time; we simply didn't have them at top of mind.

Emotions are products of our mind, and we can actually train ourselves to choose whether we banish or embrace them.

You have to train a dog to think.

The role of radiologists will evolve from doing perceptual things that could probably be done by a highly trained pigeon to doing far more cognitive things.

No matter how thoroughly a person may have learned the Greek alphabet, he will never be in a condition to repeat it backwards without further training.

Every rider trains their muscles but few train their brain.

The brain is not a bag of traits. It's startlingly complex. There are few or no single genes with a consistent effect on the mind.

Knowing reality means constructing systems of transformations that correspond, more or less adequately, to reality.

A thought is an idea in transit.

We are not born with effective vision. The human infant has to learn how to see. The eyes gather information, they transmit it to the brain, but the brain doesn't know how to process it yet. We learn how to see in a way that's very similar to the way we learn how to speak. It takes a couple of years.

The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking.

We read each other through our eyes, and anatomically they are an extension of our brains. When we catch someone's eye, we look into a mind.

Where is the borderland between memory and hallucination?

Scientists have observed that our brains get better at whatever they practice. This phenomenon is called neuroplasticity. So at this point, however old she is, she's likely mastered the art of the worry brain. Instead, we want her to develop mastery over using her thinking brain to "boss back" the worries.5