Mental processes, mental functions and cognitive processes are terms often used interchangeably (although not always correctly so, the term cognitive tends to have specific implications – see cognitive and cognitivism) to mean such functions or processes as perception, introspection, memory, creativity, imagination, conception, belief, reasoning, volition, and emotion—in other words, all the different things that we can do with our minds.
A specific instance of engaging in a cognitive process is a mental event. The event of perceiving something is, of course, different from the entire process, or faculty, of perception—one's ability to perceive things. In other words, an instance of perceiving is different from the ability that makes those instances possible.
Famous quotes containing the words mental and/or process:
“A major misunderstanding of child rearing has been the idea that meeting a child’s needs is an end in itself, for the purpose of the child’s mental health. Mothers have not understood that this is but one step in social development, the goal of which is to help a child begin to consider others. As a result, they often have not considered their children but have instead allowed their children’s reality to take precedence, out of a fear of damaging them emotionally.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“Consumer wants can have bizarre, frivolous, or even immoral origins, and an admirable case can still be made for a society that seeks to satisfy them. But the case cannot stand if it is the process of satisfying wants that creates the wants.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)