 Apperception. The third collection of aggregates consists of apperception (saṃjña-skandha), and refers to the  capacity to comprehend the specific marks (nimitta) of  phenomenal objects. The characteristic mark of a phenomenon is its  distinctive quality. The term itself is a derivative from  saṃ + jñā, meaning ‘to  understand,’ ‘to be aware of,’ or more  appropriately ‘to make intelligible’ or ‘to cause  to be understood,’ thus indicating the causative function of  perception predicates. As a synthetic mode of apprehension,  apperception is caused by a multiplicity of factors including  memories, expectations, dispositions, etc. In this generic sense,  apperception might be understood as broadly equivalent to the  Aristotelian sensus communis, the faculty that binds  together the sensory input into a coherent representation of the  object, or to Kant's notion of the transcendental unity of  apperception.