What is difference between Cognitive Abilities and Psychomotor Abilities?

Cognitive Abilities.

Cognitive abilities refer to the way an individual processes information and builds up a conceptual model of the world. Bloom has given six levels of cognitive learning: Knowledge, understanding, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

Our classroom activities pay greater attention to knowledge and understanding aspect and ignore higher levels of cognitive learning. By making use of discussions, debates, presentations, asking thought provoking questions the teacher can extend the knowledge of the learners, focus their attention, develop problem-solving and decision-making skills.

For intellectual development of learners, it is important that curriculum should be related to their real life situations and their cognitive world. Starting from imparting information to which Bloom called education, we need to cover all levels of cognitive learning to ensure completion of teaching learning process.

Psychomotor Abilities.

In between age group 5-12 children learn and develop skins like coordination, muscular control, and manipulation skills. Physical skills are called psychomotor skills, in humans because no skill is purely physical in nature without mental processing, These forms of knowledge are learned gradually by repetition, of an action. Once learnt, they become natural and permanent. These skills seem to be identical but unique to any particular person.

It is important to note that there is a close relationship between cognitive development and psychomotor development of a child. It is so because psychomotor skills require processing of some information. Even when I0 dancers perform same step, one can notice the difference in their movements by close observation.