8 Cognitive Functions

[Lotte Donohoe]

Scientificresearch suggests that there are steps you can take to reduce your risk of cognitive decline and help maintain your cognitive health. These small changes can add up: Making them part of your routine can support your brain function now and in the future.

In general, a healthy, balanced diet consists of fruits and vegetables; whole grains; lean meats, fish, and poultry; and low-fat or nonfat dairy products. You should also limit solid fats, sugar, and salt. Be sure to control portion sizes and drink enough water and other fluids.

Federal guidelines recommend that all adults get at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of physical activity each week. Walking is a good start. You can also join programs that teach you to move more safely and help prevent falls. This is important because falling can lead to serious injury, including injuries to the brain. Check with your health care provider if you are not currently active but want to start a vigorous exercise program.

Beware of claims that playing certain computer and online games can improve your memory and thinking. There currently is not enough evidence available to suggest that commercially available computer-based brain-training applications have the same impact on cognitive abilities as the ACTIVE study training.

Staying engaged in other meaningful activities as you grow older may also have important cognitive benefits. For example, one study found that older adults who learned quilting or digital photography had more memory improvement than those who only socialized or did less cognitively demanding activities. Research on engagement in activities such as music, theater, dance, and creative writing has shown promise for improving quality of life and well-being, from better memory and self-esteem to reduced stress and increased social interaction, but more research is needed in these areas.

If you would like to strengthen your social connections, consider volunteering for a local organization or joining a group focused on an activity you enjoy, such as walking. You can find available programs through your Area Agency on Aging, senior center, public library, or other community organizations. Increasingly, there are groups that meet online, providing a way to connect from home with others who share your interests or to get support.

If you have symptoms of any of these serious health problems, it is important to seek treatment. Effective management of health conditions like these may help prevent or delay cognitive decline or thinking problems.

The Myers and Briggs personality system is more complex than it appears at first glance. Beyond the basic four-letter structure, the overall framework of the MBTI assessment includes eight cognitive functions, which reveal how your mind works and how you relate to the world at large. They guide your interactions with others and your environment. They also explain how your belief systems emerge and how they influence your thinking and behavior.

So an ENFJ, to give one example, would have an extraverted Feeling function (Fe) and an introverted Intuition function (Ni). Conversely, an INFP would have an introverted Feeling function (Fi) and an extraverted Intuition function (Ne).

Isabel Briggs Myers kept the idea of a dominant (primary) and auxiliary (supporting) function as an essential element of her system. But she gave those concepts more depth and context, through two added stipulations:

Each person has one cognitive function for both the perceiving and judging categories, since both processes are required for human thinking and behavior. But Judgers will always have an extraverted-Judging function, while Perceivers will always have an extraverted-Perceiving function.

Whether or not that function is dominant depends on whether a person is an Extravert or an Introvert. Extraverted Perceivers will have a dominant perceiving function, but the perceiving function will fill an auxiliary role in Introverted Perceivers. Likewise, Extraverted Judgers will have a dominant judging function, while Introverted Judgers will have an auxiliary judging function.

People with the extraverted Sensing function rely on their five senses to absorb as much information about their environment as they can. They are highly observant and sensitive, and notice details about what is happening around them that other people miss. They tend to be very focused on the here-and-now, preferring to live in the moment rather than thinking about what might happen next week, next month, or next year.

Those who have an introverted Sensing function relate past experiences to present circumstances. Sensory input (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste) is used as a frame of reference to build ideas about how the world is and how it works, which leads to strongly patterned ways of acting and responding. Men and women with an introverted sensing function are highly organized, thrive on routine, and have wonderful memories.

The difference between extraversion and introversion comes from the source of the decisive factor in forming motivation and developing ideas, whether it is objective (i.e., the external environment) or subjective (experienced within the mind, or "processes inherent in the psyche"[1]). When discussing function types, Jung ascribed movements of the libido in both directions for each function in each function type, with one direction being that final judge.

To summarize Jung's views, as discussed in Psychological Types and maintained until his death[citation needed], Jung posited that each individual follows a "general attitude of consciousness" where every conscious act is directed by the tendency to follow introversion for introverts and extraversion for extraverts. Jung's definition of the general attitude was not to limit the individual from experiencing the opposing attitude but to offer "decisive determination".[2] The primary, or most developed, differentiated, and conscious function, is entirely positioned in the service of the conscious attitude of introversion or extraversion, but even if all other functions can be conscious and made to follow the general attitude, they are of less differentiation and are hence strongly affected by the opposing attitude of the unconscious.[3][4] Later in the book, Jung describes the auxiliary function as being capable of some significant development or differentiation if it remains less differentiated from that of the primary.[4] His views on the primary and auxiliary functions, both being of enough differentiation to be considered conscious and set aside with the primary as opposed to the most inferior two functions, can be noted as early as psychological Types.[4]

According to Jung, thinking is "that psychological function which, in accordance with its own laws, brings given presentations into conceptual connection". Jung said that the thinking function should be delegated solely to 'active thinking' in contrast to 'passive thinking'. According to him, active thinking uses concepts to connect information, which is considered judgement as a result. He writes that passive thinking "lacks any sense of direction", since it is not in accordance with an aim. He refers to it as 'intuitive thinking' instead.[1]

Later, some interpreted Jung's extraverted thinking and introverted thinking to mean something other than the function of thought as represented by extraverts and introverts respectively. In Adler and Hull's translation of Jung's Psychological Types, Jung states:

"Apart from the qualities I have mentioned, the undeveloped functions possess the further peculiarity that, when the conscious attitude is introverted, they are extraverted and vice versa. One could therefore expect to find extraverted feelings in an introverted intellectual..."[5]

Extraverted thinking is a thinking function that is objective (being extraverted). Extraverted thinking often places information, such as facts in high order; it is a process that is concerned with organisation and hierarchy of phenomena.

Introverted thinking is the thinking function that is subjective (being introverted). The nature of introverted thinking means that it is primarily concerned with its "subjective idea" and insights gained by formulation over facts and objective data. Whereas extraverted thinking is most like Empiricism, introverted Thinking is most similar to Rationalism.[6]

"Just as Darwin might possibly represent the normal extraverted thinking type, we might point to Kant as a counter-example of the normal introverted thinking type. The former speaks with facts; the latter appeals to the subjective factor. Darwin ranges over the wide fields of objective facts, while Kant restricts himself to a critique of knowledge in general. But suppose a Cuvier be contrasted with a Nietzsche: the antithesis becomes even sharper."[7]

"The introverted thinking type is characterized by a priority of the thinking I have just described. Like his [p. 485] extraverted parallel, he is decisively influenced by ideas; these, however, have their origins not in the objective data but in the subjective foundation. Like the extravert, he too will follow his ideas, but in the reverse direction: inwardly, not outwardly. Intensity is his aim, not extensity. In these fundamental characters, he differs markedly, indeed quite unmistakably, from his extraverted parallel. Like every introverted type, he is almost completely lacking in that which distinguishes his counter type, namely, the intensive relatedness to the object."[2]

Jung defined feeling as "primarily a process that takes place between the ego and a given content, a process, moreover, that imparts to the content a definite value in the sense of acceptance or rejection [...] Hence, feeling is also a kind of judging, differing, however, from an intellectual judgment in that it does not aim at establishing an intellectual connection but is solely concerned with the setting up of a subjective criterion of acceptance or rejection."[1] Also, Jung made distinctions between feeling as a judging function and emotions (affect): "Feeling is distinguished from affect by the fact that it gives rise to no perceptible physical innervation's."[1] Von Franz wrote that there are "clichs" with regard to the feeling function, which are that musicians and people with "good eros" are feeling types. She also wrote that another clich was the notion that women are better at feeling "just because they are women".[8]Later, some interpreted Jung's extraverted feeling and introverted feeling to mean something other than the function of feeling as represented in extraverts and introverts respectively.

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