Listening is where hearing meets the brain

What is cognition?

Cognition is a term referring to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experiences and the senses. More precisely, it refers to the thinking, knowing, remembering, judging and problem-solving abilities of humans. We live in an organised world of sound where cognition, attention, memory and hearing interact. Each play a crucial role in listening. Hearing is only the first step in a very complex process. It is a sense by which sounds are perceived. How our brain reacts or interprets this sound is linked to our cognitive experiences. We all have different interpretations of a piece of classical music based on our experiences and memory. As sound is converted and passed on to the cognitive systems of the brain, this information goes through a series of cognitive steps. The first step is listening.