What term describes the mental activities involved in acquiring, retaining, and using knowledge?

The term that describes the mental activities involved in acquiring, retaining, and using knowledge is cognition. Cognition encompasses various processes, including thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, and understanding, which are essential for engaging with and making sense of the world around us. It refers to the entire range of mental processes by which individuals gather information and derive meaning from that information.

Learning and memory, while related concepts, are subsets of cognition. Learning involves the process of acquiring new skills or knowledge, whereas memory pertains to the ability to retain and recall information over time. Perception, on the other hand, refers to the way we interpret sensory information, which is another component of cognitive processes but does not encompass the full range of activities involved in knowledge acquisition and utilization. Therefore, cognition is the most comprehensive term that accurately describes the mental activities related to knowledge in this context.