The cognitive environment refers to the internal states of the observer at a particular time.  Information from the cognitive environment and the original event are combined by the process of encoding to produce the original engram.  The cognitive environment plays an important role in state-dependent learning.  For example, if one learns material when inebriated, they are more likely to remember that information at a later date if they are inebriated than if they are sober -- the inebriated state is encoded into the original engram and serves as a retrieval cue for subsequent memory performance.