Key Points to Remember:

- Cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties are men­tal skills nec­es­sary for a suc­cess­ful life.

- Cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties, like any mus­cle, if not used reg­u­larly, decrease over time. If exer­cised prop­erly, they can increase over time.

Cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties are the brain-based skills and men­tal processes that are needed to carry out any task — from the sim­plest to the most com­plex. Every task can be bro­ken down into the dif­fer­ent cog­ni­tive skills that are needed to com­plete that task suc­cess­fully. If they are not used reg­u­larly, your cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties will dimin­ish over time. For­tu­nately, these skills can also be improved at any age with reg­u­lar practice.

Here are a few definitions:

1. Alter­nat­ing Atten­tion: the abil­ity to shift the focus of atten­tion quickly.
2. Audi­tory Pro­cess­ing Speed: the time it takes to per­ceive rel­e­vant audi­tory stim­uli, encode, and inter­pret it and then make an appro­pri­ate response.
3. Cen­tral Pro­cess­ing Speed: the time it takes to encode, cat­e­go­rize, and under­stand the mean­ing of any sen­sory stimuli.
4. Con­cep­tual Rea­son­ing: includes con­cept for­ma­tion, abstrac­tion, deduc­tive logic, and/or induc­tive logic.
5. Divided Atten­tion: the capa­bil­ity to rec­og­nize and respond to mul­ti­ple stim­uli at the same time.
6. Fine Motor Con­trol: the abil­ity to accu­rately con­trol fine motor movements.
7. Fine Motor Speed: the time it takes to per­form a sim­ple motor response.
8. Focused (or Selec­tive) Atten­tion: the abil­ity to screen out dis­tract­ing stimuli.
9. Response Inhi­bi­tion: the abil­ity to avoid auto­mat­i­cally react­ing to incor­rect stimuli.
10. Sus­tained Atten­tion: the abil­ity to main­tain vigilance.
11. Visu­ospa­tial Clas­si­fi­ca­tion: the abil­ity to dis­crim­i­nate between visual objects based on a con­cept or rule.
12. Visu­ospa­tial Sequenc­ing: the abil­ity to dis­cern the sequen­tial order of visual objects based on a con­cept or rule.
13. Visual Per­cep­tion: the abil­ity to per­ceive fixed visual objects.
14. Visual Pro­cess­ing Speed: the time it takes to per­ceive visual stimuli.
15. Visual Scan­ning: the abil­ity to find a ran­dom visual cue.
16. Visual Track­ing: the abil­ity to fol­low a con­tin­u­ous visual cue.
17. Work­ing Mem­ory: the abil­ity to hold task-relevant infor­ma­tion while pro­cess­ing it.

You will find more related infor­ma­tion on how to main­tain and improve cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties by check­ing out these resources:

- Neu­ro­science Inter­view Series: inter­views with over 15 brain sci­en­tists and experts.

- Col­lec­tion of brain teasers and games: atten­tion, mem­ory, problem-solving, visual, and more.
- Brain Train­ing Games and “Games”: a 10-Question Check­list on how to eval­u­ate pro­grams that make brain-related claims.