Everything You Need to Know about the Cognitive Functions... Explained in Simple Terms!
If you’ve taken a personality test or studied Jungian Psychology you may have heard of the cognitive functions.
In short, cognitive functions are mental processes that each person uses in order to absorb information and make evaluations.
The cognitive functions we use to absorb information are called Perceiving functions. There are 4 types of perceiving function and each one values a different sort of information:
- Extroverted Sensing (Se)
- Extroverted Intuition (Ne)
- Introverted Sensing (Si)
- Introverted Intuition (Ni)
There are also 4 Cognitive functions we use to make evaluations, we call these Judging functions:
- Extroverted Thinking (Te)
- Extroverted Feeling (Fe)
- Introverted Thinking (Ti)
- Introverted Feeling (Fi)
Your personality type’s strongest judging function will determine the way you rationalize and make judgements of value based on the information you absorb (perceive).
Let’s put it all together: The Cognitive Process
In short, you are programmed to value a certain input of information, and using this information you took in (whether Se, Ne, Si, or Ni) you will make value judgments by filtering the information through your judging function (Whether Te, Fe, Ti, or Fi).
This process is called the cognitive process and it will play a large role in dictating your decisions/behavior. Your preference of cognitive functions determines your personality type.
In total there are 8 cognitive functions
Each of the 16 personality types uses all 8 cognitive functions but in different orders of preference. Your personality type’s particular order is called your cognitive function stack.
In the near future, I will publish an article describing the role of each position in the cognitive function stack. This is a fascinating topic. Submit your email below if you’d like me to send you an update when the new article is out!
Before we dive into describing each of the functions, this is what each type’s cognitive function stack looks like.
Cognitive functions & shadow functions for each of the 16 personality types
Extroverted Sensing (Se): Awareness of the physical world & getting into action
As an extroverted perceiving process, Se looks at information gathered from the physical world as seen through the senses. Se focuses on what is going on right-here, right-now and thus tends to live in the moment and jump into action quickly.
Se asks the following question:
What do I see, smell, touch, taste, and hear?
Because Se is highly attuned to the physical world, Se users tend to live in the moment. When an Se user goes for a walk, they can be highly attuned to all the sensations around them. For example, they notice the details on the trees and the color and texture of the dirt. This is the information they value most.
Strong Se users tend to:
- Be strongly attuned to their senses and thus develop the senses more strongly
- Be coordinated and “naturally” good at physical activities
- Have an observant eye. They may notice little physical details that go unacknowledged by other types
- Have a natural talent for music
- Be picky with their preferences for food. They may like their food being high quality and preferably presented in an aesthetic manner
- Have great hand-eye and leg-eye coordination and are sometimes gifted at doing something with their hands and bodies like painting or woodworking, juggling, dancing, and sports.
The types that use Se strongly are:
Dominent Se: ESTP and ESFP
Secondary Se: ISTP and ISFP
Extroverted Intuition (Ne): awareness of the world of ideas and how things relate to one another
Just like Se, Ne is also a perceiving function which means it gathers information. Unlike Se, Ne values information that is abstract rather than physical. Ne sees what things represent.
If Ne was a computer program, it would scan all the data and discover the patterns in the information.
Ne creates a map of data and naturally sorts things into how they relate to one another based on their meaning.
Ne asks the following question:
What does it mean, what does it stand for, how does it relate to other things?
Ne is a lot more complicated to explain than Se because it is abstract. In the Se section, we had the example of going on a walk. Let’s use that same example here to understand the difference.
When a strong Ne user goes on a walk, they do have the ability to see the physical details, but they would need to deliberately focus on looking at the details as opposed to Se users who naturally notice details even when not trying to focus.
So what information do Ne users prefer?
Ne users instead ‘see’ meaning and associations, so they look at a tree and their mind sees what a tree represents. Instead of getting the sensory data (Se), their minds naturally get the meaning data (Ne).
They may see all the concepts connected to a tree, such as green, fresh, life, Mother Nature, growth, Outdoors, biology, birds, etc
How does Ne appear in practice?
Types that use Ne strongly are:
Dominant Ne: ENFP and ENTP
Secondary Ne: INFP and INTP
Introverted Sensing (Si): trusting past experiences and maintaining stability
As an introverted perceiving function, Si looks at information that was obtained through their experiences. Si notices the way things are now and trusts that they will continue to be that way. Si appreciates stability and is in tune with it's own state of being. Si senses its own experience of the world. I've heard some call Si 'memory' but this can be misinterpreted because not all Si users will be great at remembering facts. The connection between Si and memory has to do with how the Si-dom will remember and reflect upon many of their own life experiences. The dominant Si user has a strong connection to their past.
Introverted Intuition (Ni): Sees the natural progression of events, goal-oriented
As an introverted perceiving function, Ni sees the natural progression of things. As an intuitive function, Ni works through pattern recognition by predicting the way things will progress into the future. Ni looks at how things tend to unfold and thus is able to see a natural chain of events.
Extroverted Thinking (Te):
On its own, Te is one of the most objective functions because it has nothing to do with personal opinion. Te draws conclusions based on the cause and effect as it occurs in the world. Te trusts what appears as factual. Te trusts methods that get results. Te desires to get things done. Most often, the ends justify the means.
Extroverted Feeling (Fe):
As an extroverted judging function, Fe makes evaluations based on the information it receives directly from the outside world. Fe focuses on information gathered from the social world. Fe sees the social hierarchy and the way each person relates to one another. This function also picks up on cues and 'reads' how people are feeling and reacting.
Introverted Thinking (Ti):
Ti breaks information into its individual blocks and studies each component to make sense of how it works alone in order to understand how it works as a whole.
When paired with Ne, Ti examines each underlying assumption of an argument or idea.
When paired with Se, Ti sees a physical object and breaks it down into the individual components to see how they work as a whole. For example, the ISTP will clearly see how the organ systems in the body work together to create one organism, or how a computer is composed of individual pieces of hardware working together. In addition, Ti-Se is able to break down movement into individual reflexes. They understand movement without much conscious effort which gives STPs their great coordination and natural talent at athletic pursuits.
Ti values logical consistency, and will only accept information that is not contradictory.
Introverted Feeling (Fi):
Fi assigns value to everything it sees and experiences, thus creating an internal representation of the world based on value. We call this the Fi internal world.
Fi naturally makes judgments based on how much value something has in the internal world.
Fi sees similarities or inconsistencies in the value or feeling of different things, allowing them to get 'gut instincts'.
As an example, let's say a friend has lied to the Fi user. Fi types are unable to easily read social discomfort as an Fe-user would. Instead, the Fi type might pick up on an inconsistency in the way they are supposed to feel around their friend. They will be unable to explain what's wrong, but they will simply 'know' something is off because their Fi internal world picked up on an inconsistency. This is an Fi gut feeling.
Sometimes an Fi user might say something strange that others don't understand such as, "This song feels purple." The reason for this is that the Fi internal world has assigned a value feeling to the color purple, and the song they are listening to touched that same feeling. The Fi user then connects the song to the color purple as the best way to explain the feeling, even if it makes no sense to others.
Everything the Fi user experiences is filtered through their Fi and assigned a value, meaning or feeling. Metaphorically, you might say everything has a flavor and the Fi user can taste it. When they taste something spicey they will remember other things that have tasted spicey in the past.
What is the importance of Fi? What use does this function provide us? The answer is, Fi provides a sense of attachment to things. Fi tells us who we are and what things mean to us. Fi tells us what is important to us. An Fi dominant type has no trouble knowing what they want and what is meaningful to them. This is why Fi dominant types desire to live life in such a way that feels authentic to them, no matter what anyone else thinks of them.
Types that have weak Fi have trouble knowing what they want and what is important to them. Weak Fi types have trouble getting attached to things. Weak Fi types might be tempted to base their own value on what others think of them, or they may base the value of things based on what others tell them its worth.
When paired with Ne (as in NFPs), Fi is concerned with assigning/seeing value in ideas and concepts. This can give the NFP an interest in philosophical questions such as the meaning of life.
When paired with Se (as in SFPs), Fi is concerned with assigning/seeing value in the tangible world around them. For instance, the ISFP is drawn to seeing the deeper beauty of a leaf blowing in the wind or the way emotion can be displayed through the body such as in dance. Fi-Se may be drawn to expressing their feelings through their bodies such as by digging their hands into the ground, giving their pillow a good punch, pursuing a craft like painting, sculpting or even a sport like kickboxing.