cognitive
adjective
cog·ni·tive
| \ ˈkäg-nə-tiv
\
\
Definition of cognitive
1
: of, relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity (such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering)
cognitive impairment
2
: based on or capable of being reduced to empirical factual knowledge
Keep scrolling for more
Examples of cognitive in a Sentence
Homo sapiens' survival is founded in their filling an evolutionary niche referred to as the cognitive niche.
— Daniel Grassam, Skeptical Inquirer, July/August 2001
Researchers are debating whether heading balls can dent the cognitive skills of young soccer players for life.
— Lisa McLaughlin, Time, 5 June 2000
Further into the forebrain, motor functions trail off and cognitive functions, involving planning and thinking about the future, begin.
— Sandra Blakeslee, New York Times, 8 Nov. 1994
See More
Recent Examples on the Web
And, sometimes, participants swap information about entry criteria, such as the score on a cognitive test that might be required to join an Alzheimer’s disease study, says Lipset. — Heidi Ledford, Scientific American, "A Question of Control," 16 May 2019 These cases can end tragically, as in the story of the 14-year-old girl with cognitive deficits caught in a compromising position with a boy by her mother, who assumed she’d been raped. — Sandra Newman, Vox, "What I learned reading hundreds of false rape accusations.," 18 Sep. 2018 More Essays Much remains unknown about concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)—a neurodegenerative disease that kills brain cells and causes cognitive deficits, behavioral change and dementia. — Rob Ruck, WSJ, "The Samoan Way of Football," 20 July 2018 This is important because many studies link marijuana use during adolescence to cognitive deficits, depression and other mental-health problems. — Washington Post, "Commentary: Keep pot billboards away from kids," 24 June 2018 In their brief but harsh critiques, Della Sala, McIntosh, and Cubelli argue that the evidence for cognitive deficits in the US workers is weak and that the Penn medical team used subjective and inappropriate criteria for their assessment. — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, "US pulls two more from Cuba amid puzzling health cases now affecting China," 11 June 2018 But because evidence already shows that physically fit older people have reduced risks for a variety of cognitive deficits, researchers recently looked into the relationship between aerobic fitness and word recall. — Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times, "How Exercise Can Help You Recall Words," 15 May 2018 Scott notes that the results, particularly the findings about abstinence, shouldn’t be interpreted as absolving marijuana from potential cognitive deficits. — Alice Park, Time, "How Smoking Pot May Hurt the Teenage Brain," 18 Apr. 2018 Upset Homeowners Dear Upset: Your neighbor might be experiencing cognitive changes, brain illness, or decline. — Ask Amy, oregonlive.com, "Ask Amy: Trespassing neighbor instructs contractor, sprays weed killer on lawn, calls homeowners ‘rude’," 2 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cognitive.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Keep scrolling for more
Keep scrolling for more
More Definitions for cognitive
cognitive
adjective
English Language Learners Definition of cognitive
technical
: of, relating to, or involving conscious mental activities (such as thinking, understanding, learning, and remembering)
See the full definition for cognitive in the English Language Learners Dictionary
cognitive
adjective
cog·ni·tive
| \ ˈkäg-nət-iv
\
\
Medical Definition of cognitive
: of, relating to, or being conscious intellectual activity (as thinking, reasoning, remembering, imagining, or learning words)
the cognitive elements of perception— C. H. Hamburg
Keep scrolling for more