What is cognition? Cognition is a basic concept in cognitive behavioral therapy. The word cognition combines two Latin words: cognitio - knowledge, cognition and cogitatio, thinking, reflection. The word cognition thus means knowing and thinking. This is for understanding. The exact definition of cognition in modern psychology looks like this: “Cognition is a set of mental (mental, thinking) processes - perception, categorization, thinking, speech and other processes that serve the processing and processing of information. It includes awareness and assessment of oneself in the surrounding world and the construction of a special picture of the world (model of the world) - everything that forms the basis for its response - emotional, sensory, physiological and behavioral.” It is important to realize that cognition includes both processes occurring in the human psyche and their results - cognitive formations that are the result of these processes. We can say that cognition is a process of modeling - continuous construction and constant change of a model of the world, including awareness and evaluation of oneself, which lead to stable cognitive formations. Let me emphasize that cognitive formations arise as a result of the action of a set of cognitive (mental, mental, thinking) processes. Main types of cognitive formations Here we list only certain types of cognitive formations that are of greatest importance for practice: automatic evaluative thoughts; ideas; beliefs; beliefs; values; metacognition. Why do cognitions play such a big role in human life? Because they are a model of the world, which is created by a biological computer called a “brain”. Why does this matter? Huge. A person interacts with the world around him not directly, but through a model of the world, which is created by a biological computer called the “brain”. But how does he interact? A person effectively interacts with the world around him and achieves success only if his model of the world is sufficiently accurately reflects the objectively existing reality in which a person is included. And a person loses efficiency and success, problems happen to him if the model of the world that a person has built in his head distorts the objectively existing reality. It’s like using a map of an area that is incorrect reflects what really is. For example, where a bridge was shown on the map, there was actually a swamp. We can give another analogy of what happens to a person if his cognitive processes of modeling an objectively existing reality proceed distortedly. The brain controls everything that happens to a person based on cognition. And cognition, as noted above, is a process of modeling - continuous construction and constant change of a model of the world, including awareness and assessment of oneself, which lead to stable cognitive formations. The brain is, at its core, a biological computer. And it works according to its own programs, just like an ordinary computer works according to computer programs. Only the brain has its own special psychological programs. Hence, the importance of cognition in a person’s life is the same as the importance of software for a regular computer, tablet, smartphone, phone. Without software, hardware is just a piece of hardware. The reader may have a question - how plausible is the analogy between a computer and the brain? To answer this question, it is necessary to remember where the modern science of cybernetics began. And it began with the fundamental work of the “father” of cybernetics Norbert Wiener - “Control and communication in animals and machine.” In this monograph, N. Wiener showed the commonality of information processes that occur in both living and non-living systems. Information processing in systems of any nature is carried out on the same!