Cognition refers to the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. Cognition encompasses the processes associated with perception, knowledge, attention, reasoning, decision-making, judgment, language production, comprehension, and memory.

The cognition domain at HRI-US considers fundamental research in AI that are expected to generate unique value that benefits society and consistent with the strategic vision of global Honda. Among them, modeling, interpretation, and prediction of human behavior and the interactions of humans with other agents and the environment is central to this mission. The core research areas that support this endeavor represent perception, understanding, learning, reasoning, and prediction through visual and auditory scene analysis. The essential ingredients for understanding, learning, and reasoning about the world around us include syntax, semantics, and inference. Syntax involves understanding the structure of the scene including language structure and 3D spatial relations. Semantics involves extracting meaning from visual or linguistic form of data, and inference refers to the derivation of conclusion from given information or premises through reasoning.