Cognitive Processing

Cognitive Processing

Active and Thinking - Cognitive Processing

Now try this: as fast as you can, spell the last name of the first American President backwards.

Again, Active Processing enabled you to receive Input; you had to read or hear, attend to, process, and remember the request. But this time the answer wasn’t automatic—instead, you made the internal, executive Decision that something about this request was New or unfamiliar. You needed to think about it using one or more of your Higher Thinking skills. You had to come up with a plan of action (using Logic and Reasoning). Your plan may have been to create a mental image (using Visual Processing) of the word “Washington.” This may have required you to repeat the name a few times to hear the separate sounds (using Auditory Processing) and then retrieve the letter codes (using Long-Term Memory) that represent those individual sounds before creating the word image and calling out the letters (as Output). Using all these skills, you laid down an imprint in your Knowledge Bank. This imprint would not only help you spell “Washington” backwards, but it would help perform similar tasks faster and easier as well.

This imprinting process can be illustrated by imagining that you had to walk from your house to the mailbox through fresh, deep snow. The first time, the trip would be a challenge in itself and would take extra concentration and effort. The first trip would leave a definite impression. After several similar trips, the path would be so deep and clear that you could walk it while reading your mail, without thinking about where you were going. If you were to do the exercise above (or any mental task) enough times, with enough variety and intensity, the imprint those exercises created would become a solid, permanent mental pathway.

Cognitive Processing – Active and Higher
Successful learning requires coordination and cooperation between Active Processing and Higher Thinking cognitive skills. Here’s how weakness in any of these mental skills might affect your performance:

  • If Attention is weak you may have never fully heard the request.
  • If Short-Term Memory is weak you may have forgotten the request before you responded, maybe needing the request repeated.
  • If Processing Speed is slow the request may have seemed too complex, requiring the need to have it repeated.
  • If Logic and Reasoning is weak you may have failed to come up with a solution.
  • If Auditory Processing is weak you may have been unable to unglue sounds in “Washington.”
  • If Long-Term Memory is weak you may have been unable to remember letters that represent the sounds in “Washington.”
  • If Visual Processing is weak you may have been unable to create a picture of the word in your head.
The point is that if any one of these cognitive skills is weak it will hinder your performance.

Keep Reading!

Brain Development - Return to Topic List

Excerpts of the book Unlock the Enstein Inside by Dr. Ken Gibson

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