Re: Difference between cognition and perception?

[Eliot Handelman <eliot@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Martin Braun wrote:

> Most in speech remains on a perceptional level.
> Only a small part can possibly reach the level of cognition.
> And only a small part of the small part that can reach cognition actually
> does so.
> And even smaller part can become aware to a listener.
Musically, I've come to think of this just in opposite terms:

at the lowest level is awareness, (I know something is out there, but
not much more).
and then cognition, ( I attempt to grasp the thing through familiar
categories)
and finally perception. (I grasp the thing, it speaks to me, I
experience it).

These are just words, and the other permutations are probably
also arguable.  In the case of music, perception seems to me much
more complex than cognition, though obviously in part
driven by cognition: but this is because, as in all of the arts, we
don't throw away the percept once we've extracted its meaning.

Consider here the diifference in force between "I had a perception"
and "I had a thought". One is a forceful insight to which you
were suddenly awakened -- the other is something about which
you probably feel much less certain.

"Perception" seems to involve an integrated experience, whereas :cognition"
seems to refer to the analysis (or analytical components)
of such experience.
-- eliot
------
eliot handelman phd
music & ai
montreal, qc