Cognitive abilities are brain-based skills that help you carry out any task, from the simplest to the most complex. Specific parts of your brain, working together, support each one of these cognitive abilities. For optimal cognitive fitness, all of your brain needs to be working at its peak—a concept known as "brain health."

1. 1. PERCEPTION
Perception refers to the recognition and interpretation
of sensory stimuli (smell, touch, hearing, etc). It also
refers to our ability to understand spatial relationships
between objects and visualize images and scenarios.

2. 2. ATTENTION
Attention refers to sustaining concentration on a
particular object, action, or thought, managing
competing demands in your environment.

3. 3. MEMORY
Memory refers to the holding of information over
the short term while performing a task (working
memory), registering new information and storing
it for future use (encoding and consolidation), and
accessing information from storage when needed
(retrieval).

4. 4. MOTOR SKILLS
Motor skills refers to your ability to mobilize
your muscles and skeletal system for movement
and manipulation of objects.
Gross motor skills are large movements like
raising your arms above your head or walking.
Fine motor skills are small movements like
writing, using a knife and fork, and tying shoes.

5. 5. LANGUAGE
Language refers to the translation of sounds into
words and generating verbal output.

6. 6. SELF-ASSESSMENT
The ability to test one’s own functional abilities,
identify and face challenges, and project ones into
the future to guide actions and plans.

7. 7. EXECUTIVE FUNCTION
Executive function involves the ability to carry
out out goal-oriented behaviors, such as making a
plan and executing it. In the lesson directly ahead,
we explain eight examples of executive function.