The brain is the main organ of our body since it is responsible for regulating most functions of the body and mind. Among these functions we would find the cognitive functions that are responsible for receive, select, store and process information from the environment that surrounds us. Therefore, thanks to them we can relate to others and to the objects in our environment.
These functions are continually activated and help us carry out any type of activity, such as reading, writing, talking to someone, listening to music… There are many types of these functions that, although they are different from each other, often overlap and They depend a lot on each other, that is, if we have an altered function, it is possible that the others will be affected as well.
Next in Psychology-Online we will see what are basic and higher cognitive functions and we will explain them so that we can understand more about our brain and cognitive abilities.
Basic cognitive functions
What are basic cognitive functions? In this group are those types of functions that help us to capture and filter information which will then be treated by the rest of the cognitive functions of the brain. Next we will see what the basic cognitive functions are:
Attention
Through this process we select the information and we separate that which is useful to us from that which is not. With attention we can be alert to dangers, we can also be concentrated for long periods of time, listen to a conversation…
There are different types of care:
- Focused attention: to be alert.
- Sustained attention: to be concentrated on something.
- : choose something to concentrate on, omitting the rest of the stimuli around us.
- Alternating care: move from one focus of attention to another.
Visuoperceptive and visuospatial functions
With these cognitive abilities we can recognize and classify stimuli. Thanks to them we recognize faces or distinguish a dog from a cat. That is, it helps us interpret the information.
Memory
Memory is the cognitive process of storing information. In the future, we can also recover this information, thus facilitating our anticipation of certain services. For example, if you have had a car accident because you looked at your cell phone, in the future you will surely not look at it again since you remember what happened the last time you did. There are many . Depending on the time space we would have:
-
.It can be of 2 types. On the one hand, the immediate memory: remember something at the moment it happens. On the other hand the work memory: that more focused on the short-term storage of information and its work. Example, memorizing a phone number until we find a piece of paper to write it on.
- . Store information for long periods of time. Depending on the type of memories, we find two types of long-term memory. On the one hand, the declarative memory which is that most conscious memory that allows us to evoke memories at the moment we decide. For example, remembering our wedding day. On the other hand, the non-declarative memorythat most unconscious memory like remembering how to ride a bike every time we ride one.
Higher cognitive functions
Below we will see what the higher cognitive functions and examples are.
Executive functions
They are the most complex group of cognitive processes since they are responsible for control of cognition and regulation of thoughts and our behavior. Therefore, they cover all types of brain functions. such as choosing where we direct our attention, our planning capacity, motivation, checking and regulating our actions, self-awareness, the ability to consider different points of view and consider alternative futures. In short, in this group there are all more conscious and more elaborate functions related to reasoning. Thus, we could divide them into the following subgroups:
- Goal formulation: here we would find the self-awareness and way of perceiving our relationship with the world.
- Strategy planning and stages to achieve objectives: ability to abstract, develop alternative thoughts and evaluate different possibilities.
- Execution of the behavior: Other higher cognitive functions are the ability to initiate, maintain and sequence behaviors in an orderly and integrated manner.
- Effectiveness: Among the higher cognitive functions there is, the use of feedback and self-regulation of behavior.
- Reasoning: within the higher cognitive functions we would find, therefore, reasoning, which, in turn, can be divided into several types. On the one hand, the argumentative reasoning, which is related to the linguistic ability to give arguments. And on the other hand the logic reasoning, which is the ability, upon receiving reasoning, to question its validity and the possibility or not of there being a different hypothesis. There are several types, deductive reasoning would be completely logical and inductive, which would include conjectures.
Language
This cognitive function is the ability to communicate and relate to other people. Furthermore, thanks to it our thoughts are structured. Logically, it has two phases, the language interpretation phase, that is, what others tell us, and the language production phase, in which we are the ones who transmit information to others.
What do we use executive functions for?
As you may have deduced, we are constantly making use of several of the cognitive functions of the brain, both basic and higher cognitive functions. Behind the most everyday acts there are infinite types of processes that allow us to carry out the action. For example, when cookingwe are using a alternating care between the different food preparations. Furthermore, we are using several memory types and executive functions on many occasions in order to be able to decide if more salt is needed, for example.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to What are basic and higher cognitive functions?we recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- Arranz, AA (2017, October 18). QCognitive processes: What they are and how we can improve our mental processes.
- Preiss, S.; Cermakiva, R. and Flesher, I. (2013). Personalized cognitive training in unipolar and bipolar disorder: a study of cognitive functioning.
- Rivas, MRN (2008). Cognitive processes and meaningful learning.
- Ruiz Limón, R. (2000) The silent knowledge. What is reasoning?