Mented

Mented is a neologism used in speculative discussions of mind and cognition to refer to mental content that remains active within a thinker’s mentation beyond immediate perception. It is not an established term in mainstream cognitive science, but it appears in thought-experimental literature and discussions about the boundary between perception, imagination, and working memory.

Etymology and usage: The word blends mental and the past participle suffix -ed; it is sometimes capitalized as Mented in formal or stylized contexts. It functions as an adjective (mented content) or a past participle (the content mented by the subject). The term is typically employed in hypothetical or theoretical discussions rather than as a standard scientific label.

Conceptual role: Mented content is contrasted with immediate percepts and with long-term memory. It is imagined to describe representations that are actively held in working memory and can guide decisions, planning, or action even in the absence of sensory input. As a placeholder notion, it helps distinguish between what is currently being thought and what is being perceived in real time.

Applications and discussions: In philosophy of mind, mented representations are used to probe questions about mental content, intentionality, and mental causation. In cognitive psychology, the idea is comparable to but distinct from mental imagery or working-memory representations, emphasizing the actively maintained nature of certain internal contents.

See also mentation, working memory, mental imagery, mental representation. While not a standard term, mented serves as a convenient shorthand in hypothetical explorations of how thoughts persist and influence behavior beyond current perception.