Get To Know the Cognitive Skills Your Brain Needs To Learn, Pay Attention, and Remember
Cognitive skills are the brain’s essential tools for learning — the core skills it uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason, and pay attention. Working together, your cognitive skills take incoming information and move it into the bank of knowledge you use every day at school, at work, and in life. These core skills are also key to developing other vital brain skills like critical thinking.
When your cognitive skills are strong, learning is fast and easy…but when they’re weak, learning becomes a challenge.
Each of your cognitive skills plays an important part in processing new information. That means if even one of these skills is weak, your ability to grasp, retain, or use new information is impacted. In fact, most learning challenges (such as ADHD and dyslexia) are caused by one or more weak cognitive skills.
The cognitive skills your brain needs to learn successfully can be divided into four main categories: attention, processing, logic and reasoning, and memory.
Attention
The cognitive skill of attention involves filtering the stimuli that you receive through each of your senses. There are three main types of attention: sustained, selective, and divided.
- Sustained attention enables you to stay focused for an extended period of time. If this skill is weak, you may jump from task to task and have lots of unfinished projects.
- Selective attention, also known as focused attention, enables you to stay focused on a task despite distractions. It allows you to pay attention to the most important things in your surrounding environment while screening out less important stimuli. If this skill is weak, you may be easily distracted.
- Divided attention enables you to remember information while doing two things at once (i.e., multitasking). If this skill is weak, you may have difficulty multitasking and/or make frequent mistakes when trying to do so.
Processing
While attention skills involve filtering incoming stimuli, processing skills involve the interpretation of that stimuli. There are three elements of processing to be aware of: auditory processing skills, visual processing skills, and processing speed.
- Auditory processing enables you to analyze, blend, and segment sounds. These skills help you identify, interpret, and attach meaning to the auditory stimuli your ears receive. Auditory processing skills form an integral part of our ability to read. If these brain skills are weak, you may struggle with learning to read, reading fluency, or reading comprehension.
- Visual processing enables you to interpret incoming visual stimuli and think in visual images. If this skill is weak, you may have difficulty understanding what you read, remembering what you’ve just read, following directions, reading maps, or doing mathematical word problems. Visual processing deficits are a common underlying factor in learning difficulties like dyslexia and dyscalculia.
- Processing speed refers to the time it takes to perceive and process information and to formulate and enact a response. Strong processing speed enables you to perform tasks quickly and accurately. If this skill is weak, you will find that most tasks are more difficult. It may take you a long time to complete tasks for school or work, and you may often be the last one in a group to finish something. Processing speed difficulties have been linked to ADHD and reading disorders.
Logic and Reasoning
The skills of logic and reasoning enable you to reason, form ideas, and solve problems. They enable you to arrive at a conclusion using a rational, systematic series of steps. There are two main types of reasoning: deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning.
If this skill is weak, you may often feel stuck or overwhelmed. When faced with a complex task or a problem-solving scenario, you may find yourself frequently asking, “What do I do next?” or saying, “I don’t get this.” People with weak logic and reasoning skills also tend to struggle with math.
Memory
Memory is the process through which our knowledge is encoded, stored, and retrieved. It can be split into long-term and working memory (also known as short-term memory).
- Long-term memory enables you to recall information stored in the past. When healthy, this type of memory is relatively permanent — it holds information indefinitely. If this skill is weak, you may do poorly on tests, have trouble remembering names, or forget things you used to know.
- Working memory, or short-term memory, enables you to hang on to information while you are in the process of using it. It is the cornerstone of all types of learning, from reading and taking notes to solving math problems. If this skill is weak, you may find yourself having to re-read directions in the middle of a project, have difficulty following multi-step directions, or forget what was just said in a conversation.
Brain Training With LearningRx Can Help Strengthen Weak Cognitive Skills
Brain training strengthens cognitive skills in much the same way as physical exercise strengthens the muscles of the body. Brain training challenges the mind, giving your cognitive skills a workout. When the brain has to work harder than usual, it begins to strengthen existing skills and develop new abilities. With targeted training and regular practice, learners can make dramatic gains in a relatively short period of time.
