Saturday, January 21, 2012

Cognitive Abilities That Rule Your Life

When you have an itch, you will naturally scratch the itch to make it go away. When there is a group of numbers separated by dashes, you can easily make it out mentally to be a phone number. And when someone says something to you, you can make out the words and formulate a complete sentence from it without having to consciously analyze every word that has been said. As humans, we use many cognitive abilities that we may take for granted but that truly rule our lives.

Every day we make use of these cognitive abilities to get through our daily life and do even the simplest of tasks. Sometimes there may be glitches or minor struggles with one thing or another, but that is just because each individual has differing strengths and weaknesses than the next. With that said, here are some example of what can be described as cognitive abilities that you may have never thought of.

Inductive reasoning is the ability to combine pieces of information to form various conclusions. If you can take bits of information and compile them into a single thought, something greater than the obvious may be found. This is often the case when it comes to finding that perfect someone.

Information ordering consists of arranging things or actions in a particular order according to a specific set of rules. This is precisely what happens with phone numbers, street addresses or when looking at a map. And even when it comes to putting a sentence together or spelling a word, you are placing letters in a specific order to formulate a thought people can understand and that you can properly express.

Memorization is one of the cognitive abilities not everyone has to same level of capacity. This is certainly an example of an area some are strong in and others not so much. If you can remember information like words, numbers, pictures and procedures, your memory is said to be strong.

With mathematics, number facility is crucial to whether or not we can succeed. This form of ability allows us to add, subtract, multiply and divide. How quickly it can be done and whether or not it is completed correctly determines how successful and strong we are in this area.

One of the cognitive abilities every parent wishes their children were stronger at is oral comprehension. This is the ability to listen to and understand information and ideas that are presented through words and sentences. Of course, children tend to let certain things go in one ear and out the other. But in general, the greater you comprehend information the stronger you are with oral comprehension.

The list of cognitive abilities goes on and on with originality, perceptual speed, problem sensitivity, time sharing, visualization and written expression just a few more examples. There will be some areas you are stronger in than others, but in general it is the combination of all of these fields that make up who you are and what you are capable of.

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