Conscious Recognition

What is recognition, and how relevant is it to the function of the brain?

A technical definition of “recognition” is; identification of something from previous encounters or knowledge. Depending on the interpretation of the word “identification’, this could include or disclude simpler subconscious mind processes. As the word is broken down, it could be considered, literally the “re”-occurence of “cognition” of the same thing, since the definition of “cognition” is; the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. But, this definition of “cognition” includes the requirement of understanding, which would require a higher degree of intelligence and comprehension, and would disclude subconscious mind functions. Another definition of “recognition” could be; noticing a strong similarity, which indicates a repeated perception. In other words, perceiving something which has been perceived before. This would include subconscious functions. It seems that it could go either way, but for the sake of simplicity, I’ll assume recognition includes subconscious function, since from my experience, it seems the common interpretation of the word would include an animal “recognizing” another animal or a person. So, the word basically describes the process of perceiving something which is already in memory. 

This should be fundamentally significant in the function of any brain with subconscious or conscious processes, since these processes seem to be dependant on memory. Subconsciousness basically functions by saving experiences in memory, linked with positive or negative reinforcement, then on the occasion of recognition of something within the memory of that experience, reactivating the reinforcement. Every action or reaction taken by any animal, which is triggered in any way by memory, would be based on recognition. 

Recognition tends to be a beneficial function. It allows the subconscious to cause any individual to avoid or pursue factors, depending on which has proven to be more beneficial in past experiences. As a lack of recognition tends to cause stress of the unknown, it makes sense if recognition causes some sense of relief through cognitive ease. If you personally think about any experiences, the sense of recognition, tends to seem much preferable over the unknown. 

A more complex process of recognition would be comprehension. Comprehension of knowledge of circumstances seems to tend to cause further relief. With comprehension, comes the ability to make more beneficial decisions regarding the circumstances. Is comprehension anything more than conscious recognition of function? When someone comprehends something, they basically understand how it functions. Understanding how something functions is basically knowing the cause and effect of factors involved, which is recognizing how factors interact (or effect other factors), in memory. 

If recognizing 1 factor in memory, causes relief and cognitive ease, it seems logical that recognizing multiple factors would increase this preferable sense of relief. Since understanding is a process of recognizing multiple factors, including their interactions, it seems to follow that this should cause a further sense of relief. If conscious mind functions involve understanding and comprehension, then it seems this would cause an increase in the preferable sense of cognitive ease and relief. Would an amplified sense of recognition, not be a logical explanation for the feeling which we tend to consider so significant yet mysterious, which we call: consciousness?