<P> In psychology, the term "cognition" is usually used within an information processing view of an individual's psychological functions (see cognitivism), and it is the same in cognitive engineering; in a branch of social psychology called social cognition, the term is used to explain attitudes, attribution, and group dynamics . </P> <P> Human cognition is conscious and unconscious, concrete or abstract, as well as intuitive (like knowledge of a language) and conceptual (like a model of a language). It encompasses processes such as memory, association, concept formation, pattern recognition, language, attention, perception, action, problem solving and mental imagery . Traditionally, emotion was not thought of as a cognitive process, but now much research is being undertaken to examine the cognitive psychology of emotion; research is also focused on one's awareness of one's own strategies and methods of cognition, which is called metacognition . </P> <P> While few people would deny that cognitive processes are a function of the brain, a cognitive theory will not necessarily make reference to the brain or to biological processes (compare neurocognitive). It may purely describe behavior in terms of information flow or function . Relatively recent fields of study such as the neuropsychology aim to bridge this gap, using cognitive paradigms to understand how the brain implements the information - processing functions (see also cognitive neuroscience), or to understand how pure information - processing systems (e.g., computers) can simulate human cognition (see also artificial intelligence). The branch of psychology that studies brain injury to infer normal cognitive function is called cognitive neuropsychology . The links of cognition to evolutionary demands are studied through the investigation of animal cognition . </P> <P> For years, sociologists and psychologists have conducted studies on cognitive development or the construction of human thought or mental processes . </P>

Where does cognition take place in the brain