Belonging to knowing and thinking. Of the processes by which a mind takes in and works on what it meets.
Latin cognoscere (to get to know, to become acquainted with), from co- (together, thoroughly) + gnoscere (to know), from a root for knowing.
Names the machinery rather than its output — calling a process cognitive says something about how a mind arrived at a result, never whether that result was correct, wise, or even attended to as reasoning while it was happening.