The Top 10 Cognitive Functions (Capacities)

Our brain has a large number of Cognitive functions , Which allow us to perform a multitude of activities.

However, we seldom pay attention to what those cognitive abilities are, how they act and what mechanisms are involved in the numerous mental processes that our brain makes on a daily basis.

Cognitive abilities

Would you like to know a little more about the cognitive abilities and functions of the human being? Here we explain which are the 10 most important.

What is a cognitive ability?

Cognitive abilities are those competencies related to cognition. But what is cognition?

For cognition is the faculty, conscious or unconscious, of taking the information that is received, and processing it on the basis of prior knowledge Purchased.

So when we talk about cognitive abilities, we are talking about all those skills that you have Our brain To operate and work with the Information we acquire from our environment.

Let's see which are the most important!

1. Perception

perception

The first cognitive function we put in place in order to obtain any kind of information about our environment is perception.

And is that perception is the process that has the function of coding and coordinating the various elemental sensations to give them a meaning.

And why is perception important?

  • Because the human being has the need to adapt to the environment.

  • Because the environment in which we live is complex and changing.

  • Because perception orders materiality and creates our reality.

  • Because if we do not perceive things, they can not enter our mind.

    So when you read, hear, or touch anything, the first function you put into action is perception:

  1. Stimuli reach our receptors.

  2. The receptors send the information to our brain.

  3. Once the information is in our brain you can start processing.

    This means that the way you see things, perceive them and interpret them, is the starting point for performing the rest of functions Cognitive, since it modulates the way in which the information reaches your brain.

Moreover, what makes this cognitive function special is that, unlike other cognitive abilities, it is more marked by determinants Psychological than by cognitive abilities.

Aspects such as experience, fears, obsessions, desires, expectations or values, modulate perception, so our state Psychological role plays a very important role in determining the way in which information reaches our mind.

2. The attention

Attention

Apart from perception, another cognitive function that plays a fundamental role in the input of information into our brain is attention.

And is that when it comes to receiving information, so important is the way we perceive it, as the elements we pay attention to. Saying Otherwise, attention modulates the components we perceive.

Our brain captures numerous stimuli, but only a few are aware, the rest are subliminally perceived. Attention is, therefore, a process that Choose what stimuli we will capture. It is a kind of filter that has our mind to introduce into our brain that information that is relevant.

Thus, attention is an adaptive process, since it allows us to better capture the environment and respond in an effective way.

In addition, as you know, attention can be directed. More specifically the attention carries out 3 processes:

  • Selective processes : When we must respond to a single stimulus or task.

  • Distribution Processes : When we must attend to several tasks at a time.

  • Maintenance or maintenance processes : When we must attend for relatively long periods of time.

Thus we might say that attention, together with perception, are two capacities that we possess human beings that act as prerequisites So that the information reaches our brain, and therefore play a fundamental role in the rest of the cognitive processes.

That is to say:

If you perceive things properly and pay attention to relevant things, the mental processes you do later will benefit, as They will be working with adequate information.

However if you perceive things in a distorted way, you pay attention to irrelevant stimuli or you are unable to maintain your attention in aspects Important, your cognitive processes will have an added difficulty, since the information they will have to work will not be adequate.

3. Understanding

understanding

Once the information has reached the neurons of your brain, the next indispensable element for the tasks performed by the attention and the Perception are not in vain is the understanding.

Understanding, as you well know, refers to"understanding"the information that has just come to us.

However, we can not define understanding as a single process, or a single capacity, but as a set of them.

Understanding involves a series of processes such as analysis, criticism or reflection, which are articulated by our mind in a way Interactive.

For example, when you read a story in the newspaper, to understand its content come into play factors such as:

  • Your general knowledge (your memory) about the world and more specifically about the subject of the news.

  • Your perception of the news, the attention you give, and the way you codify it through working memory.

  • Your language, which allows you to recover the meaning you have stored in your neurons on every word you read.

Thus, the interaction between these processes, will dictate your ability to understand any information you want to be stored in your Neurons, ie, any information you perceive and you want to pay attention.

4. Memory

memory

Once the processed information reaches your brain, the mechanism that is launched is memory (that we remember). But what do we mean by memory?

Maybe as Cofer said:

" If our memories were perfect and never fail in moments of need, we probably would not have the slightest interest in them."

This statement conceives the memory As a mere memory, or rather, as a set of memories and stored information, but, memory is much more than that.

And you ask yourself... If memory is not memory what is it?

For memory is a process or set of processes that allow to encode, store and retrieve information, once it has"entered"into Our Neurons.

To see more clearly what memory implies, let's look at the different types of memory we have.

Sensory memory:

It is a memory of very short duration (from 1 to 3 seconds) that works together with the perception system to process the information that we want it to enter our mind .

That is to say, when we perceive any stimulus, our brain already begins to remember, and through this Sensory memory , Is provided to our Perceptual system the amount of time just to memorize the element that is entering.

Short-term memory:

It acts as a working memory: when the sensorial memory has already done its work that has allowed us to perceive the information, it comes into play Short-term memory (lasting from 18 to 30 seconds).

This short memory keeps available (memorized) information that has just been perceived for a few seconds so it can be stored correctly.

In addition, this working memory also reactivates materials stored in the memory in the long term, in order to integrate the new information with which already Was previously owned.

Long-term memory:

Once sensory memory and short-term memory have acted, long-term memory appears,"memory in capital letters."

This type of memory is what is popularly known as"memory,"and contains all that information that has already been stored in our brain, Contains our memories.

5. Language

language

Closely linked to memory we find language.

By language is meant the ability to relate a system of codes, with meanings of objects from the outside world, as well as their actions, Qualities and relationships between them.

Thus, language could be considered a special form of memory, which allows us to automatically remember the relationship between a word and a meaning.

6. Orientation

orientation

By orientation we understand the set of psychic functions that allow us to realize, in each moment, the real situation in which we we find.

In other words, your experiences and memories make it possible for you to be aware of your own person and of your situation in space and time.

However, your orientation is not a simple memory, it is the conjunction of multiple memories and knowledge that come together. For example:

When you are on a road from a site unknown to you, you may be able to orient yourself while driving.

But that capacity for orientation is not a simple memory, many other capacities come into play:

It may help that you have looked at the map before and remember some aspect of the road, it is possible that your knowledge about the country or the The region in which you are also collaborating with the orientation, or that your more general knowledge about the typical operation of roads and roads Be key for you to hear.

Thus, the interaction of different parts of our brain and different mental processes, enables us to have a general capacity that Allow us to orient ourselves both in space, as in time as in person.

7. Praxias

Girl waving

Praxis is the capacity we have for voluntary, intentional and organized movements.

Thus, the ability that allows you to perform any movement with any part of your body, is regulated by the specific regions of your Brain that conform the praxias.

There are 4 different types of praxis.

  • Praxias idemotoras : Ability that allows you to perform simple gestures intentionally, such as waving hands.
  • Idea Praxis : Ability to manipulate objects with the requirement of a sequence of gestures and movements, such as cutting a sheet with the scissors.
  • Facial praxis : Ability to move parts of the face with a lens, such as giving a kiss.
  • Visoconstructive praxias : Ability to plan and perform movements to organize a series of elements in space, such as drawing.

8. Executive functions

Executive functions could be conceived as"the glue"of our cognitive abilities.

So, they are the ones who are in charge of starting, organizing, integrating and managing the rest of the functions that our brain has.

Let's take an example:

You want to make yourself a fried egg. In your long-term memory is perfectly stored that to do it first you have to take a frying pan, pour it Oil and wait for it to warm, break the egg and put it on top of the boiling oil.

So far so good, you remember perfectly. However, without your executive functions you would be unable to do so!

And without them, you would not be able to perceive the situation, to make your working memory work correctly to remember that you just took the Skillet, gather that information with your memories of how to make a fried egg or properly plan those memories.

9. Reasoning

The reasoning would be like"the plus"that contains our brain to be able to perform superior operations.

With reasoning we are able to perform organizing functions related to logic, strategy, planning or Resolution of problems .

Thus, reasoning allows us to integrate the information we have stored in our neurons, so that we can"acquire new Knowledge through what we already know".

With this cognitive ability appear our ideas, judgments or conclusions.

10. Metacognition

Metacognition

Finally, one last cognitive ability that I would like to comment on is that which goes beyond cognition, metacognition.

Metacognitive capabilities control direct, improve, and apply problem solving about cognitive abilities.

Put another way, metacognition is what allows us to learn how our brain works, taking care of things like:

  • Design the steps to follow,

  • Self-regulate our actions and our thought processes.

  • Evaluate the functioning of things,

  • Acquire ability to anticipate (forward)

  • Acquire capacity for improvement.

References

  1. Carroll, J.B (1993). Human cognitive abilities a survey of factor-analytic studies. University of North California at Chapel Hill.
  2. Herrera, F. Cognitive Abilities. Department of Evolutionary Psychology and Education University of Granada.
  3. Watanabe, K. Funahashi, S 2014). Neural mechanisms of dual-task interference and cognitive capacity limitation in the prefrontal cortex. Nature Neuroscience (17), 601-611.
  4. Image source 1.
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  6. Image source 9.

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