According to wikipedia.org cognition is the mental action or process of  aquiring knowledge  and understanding through, experience and the senses.

Cognition involves many aspects of intellectual functioning and processes which i am going to discuss about four of them which are very necessary for any successful student.

Memory    

Memory is the basic form of cognitive skill that every human being must possess in order to live successfully, various forms of memory functions exist such as Long term memory , Short term memory, Rote memory , Sequential memory, Receptive memory etc. Memory is very essential for every student as it is where everything is stored, imagine your videographer just taking the video without recording at your wedding; disaster right? yes this is how it will be for a student without strong memory.

Logical reasoning and critical thinking

Every successful learner needs a critical thinking and logical reasoning skills as a prerequisite.

Teachers will try their best in class to let you understand a subject matter, however, it is up to the student to visualize and connect the various principles to real life applications and develop analytical skills to recall such concepts

Critical thinking skills according to my findings is the main factor that distinguishes an intelligent students from unintelligent ones.

Attention

You can not be a successful learner if you can’t pay attention to basic details and instructions.

Every student needs a sustained attention to learn and understand and to get stuff into the long term memory. Attention is the main motivation behind the banning of mobile phones and other gadgets in our senior high schools.

Perception

This skill is near to Logical reasoning and critical thinking. It involves the ability to visualize and make a picture and practical meaning of what is being taught. any student who is able to link every concept to real life experience is successful already because education is all about the ability to improve life through what you learn.

I am therefor happy for the introduction of the new basic education curriculum which focuses on mental and skill development rather than only cognition.

Thank you for reading and do not forget to drop your comment. In my next article we will learn about how to acquire these skills.