Cognition is the manipulation of which kind of element?

• A. Representations
• B. Memories
• C. Thoughts
• D. Symbols

Answer: (A)

Cognition involves manipulating mental representations—the internal stand-ins for objects, events, and relations in the world. When you think through a problem, plan a route, or understand a concept, your mind transforms and combines these representations to produce new thoughts and decisions. Representations encompass images, ideas, and symbols, and can be linguistic, numerical, or spatial. While memory is a store of information and symbols are a type of representation, the act cognition performs is the manipulation of representations themselves. That’s why representations is the best fit.