cognition vs knowledge

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hello,

I am just compiling word lists for my students on www.headmagnet.com.
A very useful site to help students to keep a lot of words in their heads.
The word I have just entered is ‘cognition’.
Here are the definitions I found and supplied:

  1. the act or process of knowing; perception.
  2. the product of such a process; something thus known, perceived, etc.
  3. knowledge.

In the Hint section I gave this example:

Television frequently causes a loss of cognition and general decrease in attention span when viewed too often, especially by children.

The question is: will it be OK to change the word ‘cognition’ in the example sentence for the word ‘knowledge’.
Knowing my students, I am sure they will choose ‘knowledge’ for the simplicity’s sake.

Thank you for the time and help.

2

The proposed substitution of ‘knowledge’ for ‘cognition’ is, IMO, unsuitable for this example. As definition 1 indicates, ‘cognition’ has a connotation of the act or process of knowing, whereas ‘knowledge’ is information known to or acquired by someone. Therefore, since the sentence needs an action noun, that is, loss of knowing something or loss of the ability of knowing something, ‘cognition’ is a perfect choice.