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:
“To a first approximation, the intentional strategy consists of treating the object whose behavior you want to predict as a rational agent with beliefs and desires and other mental states exhibiting what Brentano and others call intentionality.”
—Daniel Clement Dennett (b. 1942)
“The process of discovery is very simple. An unwearied and systematic application of known laws to nature causes the unknown to reveal themselves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)