kognitive

Kognitive is an adjective used in German and other languages to describe phenomena related to cognition, the mental processes involved in acquiring, processing, and using knowledge. It appears in many technical terms and phrases such as kognitive Prozesse (cognitive processes), kognitive Belastung (cognitive load), and kognitive Entwicklung (cognitive development).

In science, kognitive concepts are central to psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. Researchers study how perception, attention, memory, language, reasoning, and decision making operate, how these processes are organized in the brain, and how they can be influenced by experience, disorder, or bias. The term covers both basic mechanisms and applied topics such as education, human–computer interaction, and artificial intelligence.

In applied fields, kognitive approaches inform the design of tools and systems that align with human thinking. This includes cognitive architectures and models used to simulate mental processes, as well as user interfaces and educational technologies that aim to support learning and decision making by matching how people think and learn.

Etymology and usage: the word derives from Latin cognitivus, through French cognitif and English cognitive, with the German form kognitiv emerging in technical language. In German, the base is often realized as kognitiv, with different endings (for example, kognitive Prozesse) depending on grammatical context.