Cognitype™
the Cognitive Triadic Personality Types
by PersonalityTapestry™
Cognitions

Life needs to encode and organize. Physically, this includes genetic blueprints and cellular differentiation. Psychologically, cognitions are the “programs” of brain function. Like a vehicle’s engineering or manuals, cognition coordinates and operates our mental systems using its various utilities.

Cognitions enlighten and equip us in different ways. Subconscious to conscious, these can exist at seemingly more reactive and subordinate “lower” levels to more proactive and executive “higher” levels. Multiple cognitions can exist and conflict with one another. People tend to perceive conscious, “higher,” or secondary or reflexive cognitions as more under their own agency and identify with as “themselves.”

  • Memory, imagination, or mental models are the reproductions or simulations of perceived information, transmitting knowledge and also intuitive understanding. These are often subconscious and not perceived as influencing thought.
  • Thought in its precise sense includes all cognitive tools which do work upon the mental contents, manipulating knowledge and understanding. This includes conceptualizing, problem-solving, judging, deliberating and deciding; through biases, heuristics, and languages, such as for verbal reasoning and informal logic (including fallacies).
  • Metacognition is thinking about thinking (as a process), as evidenced by written or formal languages. With free will and sapience, metacognition opens the potential to be truly rational agents, in contrast to misperceived irrationality, and justifies the prescription of personhood, as in human beings.

cognition (noun): “1. The process of knowing, of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought and through the senses. 2. (countable) A result of a cognitive process.” from Latin cognitio: “learning, study (acquisition of knowledge) 2. knowledge, cognition, cognizance 3. (law) investigation, judicial examination, inquiry, cognizance, trial” from cognōscō: “I learn, get to know 2. I am acquainted (with someone), I recognize, apprehend 3. (in perfect tense) I know, perceive, understand” from gnōscō: “to become acquainted with something, learn about it 2. (in perfect tenses and past participle) I know, recognize, am acquainted with, i.e.; in possession of knowledge. 3. (rare) to recognize someone, be familiar with” from Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₃sḱéti: “to recognise“

See also: cerebral, mental

Types

Types are exclusive, fundamentally differing categories. That doesn’t mean they don’t share or overlap with any other type’s elements, but that their own combination and variant is distinctive and unique. Thus, type is determined by qualitative presence versus absence. Personality types may be aptly assessed through binaries, such as “yes” or “no” (or “unsure”).

A vertical line divides type A from types B and C. A and B are directly across the line from each other, whereas C is further down. A dashed circle surrounds type B and C.
Personality B is in the same category as C and different to A. Even if there are shared components, there is no spectrum between types.

type (noun): “1. A grouping based on shared characteristics; a class. 2. An individual considered typical of its class, one regarded as typifying a certain profession, environment, etc. 3. An individual that represents the ideal for its class; an embodiment. 4. (printing, countable) A letter or character used for printing, historically a cast or engraved block.” Etymology, from Middle English type: “symbol, figure, emblem,” from Latin typus: “1. figure, image 2. type, form, sort, kind,” from Ancient Greek túpos: “1. A blow, pressing 2. The results of a blow: mark, impression 3. mark, figure, image, outline 4. General character of a thing: sort, type 5. text, content 6. pattern, example, model 7. summoning,” from túptō: “1. (literally or figuratively) to beat, strike, smite 2. (middle) to beat, strike oneself,” from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp-: “to push, to stick,” possibly “to wonder“

Cognitive Types

Type is how cognition is personalized. Cognitype™ is PersonalityTapestry™’s official version of cognitive triadic personality types. Cognitive clarifies what types are a presence (or absence) of, but can be shortened to types, given context. Types are preexisting cognitive formats — outlines, templates, or frameworks — inherent within and facilitating the processing of mental contents through simplification, reduction, and projection. In other words, how all thought is processed, not what is processed.

If uninhibited by other factors, cognitive types directly initiate and cause thoughts, which as patterns or trends become a person’s tending processes. Because all psychological facets are interconnected, cognitive types will also indirectly effect and be effected by pulsion and affects. Cognition, thoughts, and processes are all closely connected, with types underpinning specialized particularities, yet all exist with the multitude of other factors within and surrounding each individual.

Assessments

A questionnaire for Cognitype™ has not yet been developed. In the meantime, as we publish more information, keep the homepage FAQ and this page in mind as you study and self-assess. Utilize “cognitive” and “type” when interpreting this model’s terms and explanations, distinguishing from other facets. Remember, types are inherent and irrational mental processors.