Cognitive Functions of the Brain: Perception, Attention ...

1 IFM LAB TUTORIAL SERIES # 6, COPYRIGHTc IFM LABC ognitive Functions of the brain : Perception, Attention andMemoryJiawei and DirectorInformation Fusion and Mining Laboratory(First Version: May 2019; Revision: May 2019.)AbstractThis is a follow-up tutorial article of [17] and [16], in this paper, we will introduceseveral important Cognitive Functions of the brain . brain Cognitive Functions are the mentalprocesses that allow us to receive, select, store, transform, develop, and recover informationthat we ve received from external stimuli. This process allows us to understand and torelate to the world more effectively.

2 Cognitive Functions are brain -based skills we needto carry out any task from the simplest to the most complex. They are related with themechanisms of how we learn, remember, problem-solve, and pay Attention , etc. To be morespecific, in this paper, we will talk about the perception, Attention and memory functionsof the human brain . Several other brain Cognitive Functions , , arousal, decision making,natural language, motor coordination, planning, problem solving and thinking, will beadded to this paper in the later versions, respectively. Many of the materials used in thispaper are from wikipedia and several other neuroscience introductory articles, which willbe properly cited in this paper.

3 This is the last of the three tutorial articles about thebrain. The readers are suggested to read this paper after the previous two tutorial articleson brain structure and Functions [17] as well as the brain basic neural units [16].Keywords:The brain ; Cognitive Function; Consciousness; Attention ; Learning; MemoryContents1 Introduction22 Detailed Process of Perception .. Types of Perception ..63 Visual Attention .. Multitasking and Simultaneous Attention .. and Divided Attention .. Attention .. More Discussions on Attention .. and Covert Orienting Attention .. and Endogenous Orienting Attention .

4 And Cognitive Attention ..141 JIAWEI ZHANG, IFM LAB Model on Attention ..144 Types of Memory .. Memory .. Working Memory .. Memory .. Memory Process .. Encoding .. Consolidation .. Storage .. Recall/Retrieval ..285 Summary311. IntroductionAs described in [2], cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and un-derstanding through thought, experience, and the senses. Human cognition can be consciousand unconscious, concrete or abstract, as well as intuitive (like knowledge of a language)and conceptual (like a model of a language). It encompasses many aspects of intellectualfunctions and processes such as Attention , the formation of knowledge, memory and workingmemory, judgment and evaluation, reasoning and computation, problem solving and deci-sion making, comprehension and production of language.

5 Traditionally, emotion was notthought of as a Cognitive process, but now much research is being undertaken to examinethe Cognitive psychology of emotion; research is also focused on one s awareness of one sown strategies and methods of cognition, which is called metacognition. Cognitive processesuse existing knowledge and generate new Piaget was one of the most important and influential people in the field of develop-mental psychology . He believed that humans are unique in comparison to animals becausewe have the capacity to do abstract symbolic reasoning . His work can be compared to LevVygotsky, Sigmund Freud, and Erik Erikson who were also great contributors in the fieldof developmental psychology.

6 Today, Piaget is known for studying the Cognitive develop-ment in children. He studied his own three children and their intellectual development andcame up with a theory that describes the stages children pass through during Cognitive development at different stages in children is also illustrated in Table few people would deny that Cognitive processes are a function of the brain , acognitive theory will not necessarily make reference to the brain or to biological may purely describe behavior in terms of information flow or function. Relatively recentfields of study such as neuropsychology aim to bridge this gap, using Cognitive paradigmsto understand how the brain implements the information-processing Functions , or to un-derstand how pure information-processing systems ( , computers) can simulate to [15], several important Cognitive Functions of the brain , but not limited to,are briefly described in Table 2, which includeperception, Attention ,memory,motor skills,2 IFM LAB TUTORIAL SERIES # 6, COPYRIGHTc IFM LABT able 1: Cognitive Development in or PeriodDescriptionSensorimotorstageInfanc y(0-2years)Intelligence is present.

7 Motor activity but no sym-bols; knowledge is developing yet limited; knowledgeis based on experiences/ interactions; mobility allowschild to learn new things; some language skills are de-veloped at the end of this stage. The goal is to developobject permanence; achieves basic understanding ofcausality, time, and Childhood(2-7 years)Symbols or language skills are present; memory andimagination are developed; nonreversible and nonlog-ical thinking; shows intuitive problem solving; beginsto see relationships; grasps concept of conservation ofnumbers; egocentric thinking oper-ational stageElementaryandEarlyAdoles-cence (7-12 years)Logical and systematic form of intelligence; manipu-lation of symbols related to concrete objects; thinkingis now characterized by reversibility and the ability totake the role of another.

8 Grasps concepts of the con-servation of mass, length, weight, and volume; oper-ational thinking predominates nonreversible and ego-centric opera-tional stageAdolescence andAdulthood(12years and on)Logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts;Acquires flexibility in thinking as well as the capacitiesfor abstract thinking and mental hypothesis testing;can consider possible alternatives in complex reason-ing and problem ,visual and spatial processingandexecutive Functions . In the following sections ofthis paper, we will provide more detailed descriptions about several main Cognitive Functions ,including: perception, Attention and memory, PerceptionAs introduced in [9], perception is the organization, identification, and interpretation ofsensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information, or theenvironment.

9 All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system, which inturn result from physical or chemical stimulation of the sensory system. For example, visioninvolves light striking the retina of the eye, smell is mediated by odor molecules, and hearinginvolves pressure waves. Perception is not only the passive receipt of these signals, but it salso shaped by the recipient s learning, memory, expectation, and Attention . Generally,perception can be split into two processes : processing the sensory input, which transforms these low-level information to higher-level information ( , extracts shapes for object recognition);3 JIAWEI ZHANG, IFM LAB DIRECTORT able 2: Cognitive Development in AbilityDetailed DescriptionPerceptionRecognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli (smell, touch,hearing, etc.)

10 AttentionAbility to sustain concentration on a particular object, action, orthought, and ability to manage competing demands in our memory (limited storage), and Long-termmemory (unlimited storage).Motor SkillsAbility to mobilize our muscles and bodies, and ability to manip-ulate allowing us to translate sounds into words and generate ver-bal and SpatialProcessingAbility to process incoming visual stimuli, to understand spatialrelationship between objects, and to visualize images and FunctionsAbilities that enable goal-oriented behavior, such as the ability toplan, and execute a goal. These include: Flexibility: the capacity for quickly switching to the ap-propriate mental mode.