M5P4

Illustration of Cognitive Processes Being Applied

Zodwa is an engineering team leader. He is promoted into the position of maintenance manager. He has new job challenges that are similar but not the same as those in his previous job. He adapts what he learned in the engineering team leader role, to the new challenges in the maintenance manager role. In this case the cognitive process he used was Transferring Learnings from the old job to the new job.

In the new job, he also encounters problems that he has never encountered before. They are completely novel to him. To solve these problems, he must use “raw brain power” and harness a variety of cognitive processes to come up with solutions.

For example he may need to engage in the following thinking processes to deal with a particular problem:

Learning

He may need to do some research and reading up on the problem

Analysing

He will need to gather data and understand the facts relating to the problem

Hypothesising

He may need to engage in what – if thinking. If I do this what will happen? If I do that what will happen?

Synthesising

He may need to pull together all of the information he has gathered

Conceptualising

Devise potential solutions

Drawing Conclusions

Pull them together into a plan of action

Judgement

And also decide on courses of action even when he cannot be absolutely certain about the outcomes

The extent to which he can do this successfully is of course partly determined by his knowledge and skills base (Competencies), but if his Cognitive Capability is insufficient, he will:

Not be able to utilise his Competencies effectively to deal with the problem
Be unable to address those aspects of the problem for which his Competencies have not prepared him - in other words that are outside of his previous range of experience

To build on the CPU analogy, think of Cognitive Ability as the HARDWARE on a computer: RAM, Processor, Hard Drive

Think of Skills and Knowledge (competencies) as the SOFTWARE that is installed on a computer. Firstly , one cannot install complex, high level programs onto computers that have limited hardware specifications. Secondly, what happens when a computer cannot effectively cope with the software that has been loaded onto it? The computer slows down, hangs, or bombs out. It simply does not have the resources needed to fulfil the processing demands made by the software.

In the same way, people, like Zodwa will “fail” when their hardware – hardwired cognitive ability – cannot cope with the problem-solving demands that their jobs place on them. Software on a computer is static/dormant and is unproductive until it is taken up into the computer’s processor. Only then, when it is processed, does it produce useful information. It is the same with people. Our skills and knowledge lie dormant until we apply cognitive process to them. Only then do they “come alive” and contribute to dealing with a job challenge.

What cognitive assessments, do is give us an indication as to the extent of a person’s cognitive processing abilities and how well they are matched to the problem-solving requirements of a job. They are an excellent indicator of cognitive engine.