People with a cognitive disability pay attention to qualities of sensorimotor information, which is applied to causing effects with motor actions. The simplest mental process can be divided into a sequence of steps:
- Sensory cues arouses attention.
- The person experiences a sensation.
- The person compares the new sensation with prior, similar sensations.
- The person evaluates the new sensation within the context of prior experiences.
- The person selects a motor action.
- The motor action may cause a perceivable effect.
- The motor action always has an internal, neuromuscular sensation that the person can perceive, compare to the past, evaluate in the present context, and respond to.
- The motor action may have an external effect on material objects that the person can perceive, compare to the past, evaluate in the present and further respond to the sensory cues in step 1.
Step 1 illustrates the importance of arousal of attention. Without aroused attention, steps 2 through 6 do not occur at all.
Step 3 identifies the limited access to stored, long-term memories. The relevant information must be closely connected to the content in the cues.
Step 6 differentiates between the face and the hands. The clues about what is going on in the person's mind are really not as mysterious as it seems on the printed page. In reality, facial expressions and movements of the pupils in the person's eyes tells you a lot about what is going on in the person's mind. Blank stares = blank thoughts. Active hands = active thoughts. It is the degrees in between that produce the challenges.
Please note that these steps do not include learning or memory, yet.