Cognitive Accessibility User Research

Abstract

This document provides background research about user groups with cognitive disabilities and the challenges that they face when using Web technologies.

This document is analyses the current situation of Web Accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities, in terms of user groups. We aim to identify and describe the current situation and so that, at a later stage, we will be able to contrast it to what we want to happen,identify gaps and potentials and to suggest techniques and create a roadmap for improving accessibility for people with learning disabilities and cognitive disabilities. This document is not a specification (non-normative).

1. Introduction§

This section is non-normative.

This document provides background research on user groups with learning disabilities and cognitive disabilities and the challenges they face when using the Web Technologies. We aim to identify and describe the current situation so that subsequent publications can contrast it to what we want to happen.

This document will be used as a base document to enable the task force to perform a gap analysis, discussion, suggest techniques and create a road-map for improving accessibility for people with learning disabilities and cognitive disabilities.

It is currently at is first draft and we are asking for comments. Please let us know if you are aware of omissions.

1.1 Importance of This Document§

This document is important because enabling people with learning and cognitive disabilities to use the Web is of critical importance to both the individuals and to society.

More and more the Internet and ICT has become the main way people stay informed and current on news and health information, keep in touch with friends and family, and provides independence, convenient shopping, and other. People who cannot use these interfaces will have an increased feeling of being disabled and alienation from society.

Further, with the advent of the Web of Things everyday physical objects are connected to the Internet and have ICT interfaces. Being able to use these interfaces now is an essential component of allowing people to maintain their independence, stay in the work force for longer and stay safe.

Consider that the population is aging. By 2050 it is projected there will be 115 million people with dementia worldwide. It is essential to the economy and society that people with mild and moderate levels of dementia stay as active as possible and participate in society for as long as possible. However, at the moment even people with only a mild cognitive decline find may standard applications impossible to use. That means more and more people are dependent on care givers for things that they could do themselves, increasing the crippling cost of care and reducing human dignity.

We therefore invite you to review this draft, comment and consider how your technologies and work may be effected by these issues.

1.2 Assumptions§

There is a huge number of cognitive disabilities and variations of them. If we attempt an analysis of all the possibilities, the job will be too big and nothing will be achieved. Therefore we are adopting a phased approach, selecting in phase one a limited scope of eight diverse disabilities, and hope to achieve something useful within that scope. Also note that helping users improve skills, and emotional disabilities, are out of scope for phase one. We anticipate this analysis will continue to a second or third phase where more user groups are analyzed and the existing analyses are updated with new research and with new technologies and scenarios.

1.3 Comments§

This is an early and incomplete draft for review and to help us get comments and early feedback. We are particularly interested in:

Omitted challenges, use cases and issues.
Issues involving your technologies/work and people with learning and cognitive disabilities.
Other omitted research

We welcome comments and suggestions. All comments will be reviewed and discussed by the task force. Although we cannot commit to formally responding to all comments on this draft, the discussions can be tracked in the task force minutes.

2. Summary of User Groups and Cognitive Function§

Different people with cognitive disabilities may have problems in the following arias:

Memory - such as: Working Memory, Short Term Memory, Long Term Memory, Visual Memory, Visuo-spatial Memory, Auditory Memory (memory for sound patterns and others).
Executive Functions - such as: Emotional Control and Self-Monitoring Planning/Organization and Execution and Judgment
Reasoning - such as: Fluid Reasoning (logical reasoning) Mathematical Intelligence, Seriation, Crystallized Intelligence and Abstraction
Attention - such as: Selective Attention and Sustained Attention
Language - such as Speech Perception, Auditory Discrimination Naming Skills, Morphosyntax
Understanding Figural Language - understanding figural language, such as a simile, personification , oxymoron or idiom and puns.
Literacy - Depends on functions such as Speech Perception and Visual Perception. Also depends on: Phoneme Processing Cross-Modal Association (association of sign and concept), Visual Perception
Other Perception - such as: Motor Perception, Psychomotor Perception
Knowledge - such as: Cultural Knowledge, Jargon (subject mater), Web Jargon and technology, Metaphors and idioms, Symbols Knowledge (such as icons), Mathematical Knowledge
Behavioral- such as: Understanding Social Cues

For more information please see section 5.

It is important to note that people may have limitations in one area and not in other areas. For example, a dyslexic may have above average reasoning but impaired visual memory and literacy skills. Someone with Down Syndrome may have an above average visual memory but impaired judgment.

Cognitive Function Table and Tags
Cognitive Function Category	Cognitive Function sub categories and Tags	Dyslexia	Non-vocal	Down Syndrome	Autism	Dyscalculia	Aging Related Cognitive Decline	Attention deficit Disorder (ADD/ ADHD)
*Memory*	Duration Based Working Memory Short Term Memory -typically lasts seconds Long Term Memory - (includes recall and writing - the ability to learn such as learn a new symbol and use it the next day) Context Based Episodic Memory(autobiographical – time, self, ) Semantic Memory (factual) Visual Memory Visuo-Spatial Memory Auditory Memory: memory for sound patterns (um), Procedural Memory Musical Memory Prospective Memory - remembering to do things in the future, such as keep appointments, return a book to the library, or pay bills on time Emotional Memory Awareness based Implicit memory :(non-declarative memory ) Explicit memory: (declarative memory, intentional use of memory ) Also memories can be stored and recalled as Associative memory (MA) Meaningful memory (MM) Free-recall memory (M6)	May have impaired: Short Term Memory Visual Memory Visuo-spatial Memory Auditory Memory Procedural Memory Prospective Memory	Receptive and Expressive Aphasia may result in impaired: Short Term Memory Visual Memory Visuo-spatial Memory Auditory Memory Procedural Memory Prospective Memory Dysphonia or Elective Mutism – may have no duration based memory difficulties unless co-occurring disabilities exist Cerebral Palsy - range from no memory difficulties to auditory and visual memory difficulties linked to dyslexia and other c-occurring difficulties.	Impaired auditory (verbal) short-term memory, and explicit long-term memory. However, visuospatial short-term memory, associative learning, and implicit long-term memory functions are preserved. short-term auditory memory which can affect writing to long term auditory memory visual memory, is often far stronger Difficulty remembering information	There may be problems with memory, and integrate Episodic Memory (past experience) with present action	Memory may be affected Mainly Visuo-Spatial, and Procedural Memory for layout, schedules or sequences and Prospective Memory for things like financial planning	Affected in dementia Primarily new memories and working memory. Long term memory becomes affected as dementia progresses. Age related cognitive decline may result in slight forgetfulness.	Working memory may be affected.
	Executive Functions Emotional Control and Self-Monitoring Shift ( also called task flexibility) Initiation Planning/Organization and Execution Judgment	Sometimes affected: Planning/Organization	Those with Aphasia may have executive functional difficulties especially if emotional lability is an issue. Cognitive impairment can affect cause and effect and therefore planning and organization as well as execution.	Problems with executive function including: Difficulty with organizing and planning, difficulty working within time limits sequences, emotional control and self monitoring and judgment.	Sometimes affected: Problem-solving, manage time planning and organize emotional control and self monitoring inappropriate speech or behavior Shift can be strongly effected	Sometimes affected when involving numbers or time such as: Getting the right bus/train at the right time and on the correct platform.	All Executive Functions are affected in dementia . Sometimes Executive Function is affected in age related cognitive decline, such as Shift and judgment (lesser often)	Executive function may be affected.
*Reasoning*	Fluid Reasoning (logical reasoning) Mathematical Intelligence Seriation - reasoning via seriation includingOrganization, Conservationand Classification Behavioral -(or conative) component involving memory such as long term autobiographical memory. Crystallized Intelligence(sometimes called comprehension- knowledge) is the ability to use skills, knowledge, and experience. Abstraction	Typically not affected	Where intellectual capacity is affected there may be issues with reasoning, learning and thus remembering plus abstraction.	Typically affected. Slow speed of information processing, such as a 'penny dropping' delay between hearing or reading something and understanding and responding to it. Difficulty with Seriation such as sequencing of events. strings of number and letter, time	Typically affected: Behavioral intelligence, and understanding or relating to feelings Interested in people, but not know how to talk, play, or relate to them Difficulty dealing with change Mathematical intelligence is also often affected	Typically affected: • Mathematical Intelligence Seriation (such as estimating how much food to buy) and Abstraction	Often affected in dementia including Behavioral. Crystallized Intelligence may be the strongest form of reasoning. Age related cognitive decline can also lightly affect problem solving and reasoning	Typically not affected other then planning, time estimates and short term recall, which is part of executive function.
*Attention*	Selective Attention -the ability to attend to some stimuli while disregarding others that are irrelevant to the task at hand. Divided Attention Sustained Attention	Selective Attention may be affected	Attention deficit disorder may be a co-occurring difficulty for some non-vocal individuals. Shortened attention span can occur with Aphasia.	Difficulties with sustained attention.	Typically affected.		Affected in dementia	Affected
*Language*	Speech Perception Speech Literacy see below for more details				Typically affected.
*Speech Perception*	Speech Perception depends on: Auditory Discrimination (Note not L hearing, but the identification and differentiation of sounds also called general sound discrimination (u3), Temporal Tracking (uk) Listening Ability (ls) Naming Skills (n) Morphosyntax The system of the internal structure of words (morphology) and the way in which words are put together to form phrases and sentences (syntax). Note, there is also related memory such as working memory, auditory memory -see above There is also knowledge required (see below) such as: Grammar Metaphors Lexical	Often affected: Auditory Discrimination Temporal tracking Temporal tracking Naming skills Morphosyntax related memory	Non-vocal individuals may have auditory perceptual impairments, poor listening skills and dysnomia (lack naming skills) and semantic pragmatic disorder.	Problems with morphosyntax. Problems with short-term auditory memory, effecting writing to long term auditory memory weaker expressive language and grammatical skills overall delayed language and speech development			Affected in dementia and to a much lesser degree by age related cognitive decline (Temporal tracking)
*Understanding Figural Language*	Understanding figural language, such as: a simile, onomatopoeia, personification , oxymoron, paradox, allusion or idiom and puns. This is the ability to understand figural language and does not include the knowledge of the metaphors.	Not affected	Receptive / Expressive Aphasia may cause a failure to understand figurative speech. Intellectual cognitive impairment affect ability to understand figurative speech.				Sometimes affected by dementia
*Literacy*	Depends on Speech Perception and visual perception. Also depends on: Phoneme Processing and phonetic coding (PC) Cross-Modal Association(association of sign and concept)	Affected	Those with poor phonemic awareness skills - often AAC users, Aphasia and poor language skills may be affected.	Problems with Speech perceptions as above, spelling and grammar. Poor auditory processing skills	Typically affected.		Phoneme Processing and Cross-Modal Association are affected in dementia
*Visual Perception* (visual recognition )	The visual system automatically groups elements into patterns:Proximity, Similarity, Closure,Symmetry, Common Fate (i.e. common motion), and Continuity. (Gestalt psychology) Functions include: Object Recognition Face Recognition (seems to be a different process to object recognition [ Face and object recognition ((Alex Huk. (1999) "Object and Face Recognition: Lecture Notes." pp. 5] Visual Pattern Recognition	All can be affected. May also have visual stress.	Those with developmental or acquired dyslexia who are also non-vocal may be affected – can be due to Aphasia.	Strong visual memory but possible visual processing difficulties May have visual stress	Visual comprehension is often affected.	Face Recognition and Object Recognition and Visual Pattern Recognition	Can be affected in dementia	Diminished visual processing speeds
Other Perception	Auditory Perception (see Speech Perception above for further classifications), Motor Perception TactilePerception Smell Perception Psychomotor Perception Kinesthetic Perception ( bodily position, weight, or movement) Olfactory Perception and Sensory Perception	Auditory Perception affected Psychomotor may be affected	Depending on the co-occurring difficulties those with Aphasia, cerebral palsy, MND. MS and other disabilities that cause speech and language impairment may also have other perceptual difficulties.	Psychomotor Perception seems affected. Difficulty with finding the way to places or navigating sensitivity to noise and visual stimuli. Impaired ability to screen out background noise / movement. Sensations of mental overload Tendency to "switch off". .	Have unusual reactions to Sensory, Olfactory , smell, tactile and auditory Perception sensory integration sensitivity to physical contact sensitivity to loud noises	Psychomotor Perception spatial orientation	Affected in dementia and to a lesser degree by age related cognitive decline (such as Psychomotor Perception -Spatial/Temporal Understanding)	Developmental coordination disorder / motor clumsiness.
*Knowledge*	Types of knowledge that might be required for use of ICT include: Cultural Knowledge base Language Knowledge including: Lexical (UL) Jargon (subject mater) Web Jargon and technology Web and Technology Usages and Risks Metaphors and idioms Symbols Knowledge(such as icons) Mathematical Knowledge Mechanical Knowledge (MK) Knowledge of Behaviors Design Metaphor Knowledge Design Functions Knowledge	Typically not affected.	Intellectual cognitive impairment causes individuals to struggle with this aspect.	Affected	Affected. Partially Knowledge of Behaviors	Mathematical Knowledge And Mechanical Knowledge are affected	Affected in acquisition of new knowledge. Affected strongly in dementia
*Behavioral*	Behavioral Abstractions and social – Norms etc Social Cues other Behavioral	Slightly affected: Norms and Social Cues	Aphasia may lead to inappropriate emotional lability where certain types of brain damage have also occurred.	Affected	Strongly affected (primary symptom)	Not affected	Affected in dementia
*Consciousness*	Delusions, Hallucinations	Typically not affected.				Not affected	Affected in dementia including such as delusions, and to a lesser degree by age related cognitive decline such as irritation and withdrawal .

Notes on the Cognitive Function Table: Terms that will be used for tags are italicized and capitalized. Alternative terms are in brackets. Alternative terms will NOT be used as tags.
Discussion on the different functions is at section 4

Speed
Processing speed effect all the functions above A related concept is fluency

Potential for Inclusion

Proposed Directions

The aim of the Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force (COGA) is to improve Web accessibility for people with cognitive and learning disabilities.

This is a discussion document, that looks at what could be done for accessibility for people with cognitive and learning disabilities. It is intended to help us (COGA) identify what needs to be done to get there.

Much of this may be out of scope for our mandate and role as a W3C task force.

What is Needed

The pieces of what needs to happen next (described in the text bellow)

Techniques for Everyone

There is a substantial amount of techniques that are helpful for over 90% of people with cognitive disabilities. These techniques need to be gathered in one place.

For example, most people with any cognitive disability may be disturbed when form data is lost when a session times out. Almost all COGA use groups may need help or need to double check data entered into a form. Timing out so that they need to start again may make a form unusable.

See sample page format to help us gather techniques as we come across them, so that they do not get forgotten or are hard to find later when we are finished the gap analysis.

Techniques for User Groups

We also need to document t techniques that are good for some COGA user groups and not for others (depends on cognitive function and localization). For example, text under symbols may be useful for many people with dementia but unhelpful for many people with severe language disabilities.

In a localization example using left hand side text alignment is helpful for English sites but right hand side text alignment is helpful for sites in Arabic or Hebrew.

See sample page structure and more examples.

Grouping Techniques

Once we have a comprehensive set of techniques we may want to grope techniques into “enhancements”. For example, we may make a group of techniques as “simple text” enhancements, making it easier to reference.

We may also want to identify how different enhancements benefit people with different limitations of cognitive functions.

To achieve this we may need to label groups of cognitive functions, so that we ca simplify linking enhancements to cognitive functions. See an initial page of cognitive function.

Once we have a set of enhancements we can enable standards such as EARL to identify which documents support which enhancements.. Other supported systems include GPII, ISO, Cload4All and possibly Fluid.

Once we have a comprehensive set of techniques we can also explore what is needed to make a website adaptable to different COGA groups of users. We may be able to identify semantics that enable adaptation for specific learning and cognitive disabilities and to conflicting needs of different users.

This could include:

Adaptive text: This would enable text to become simpler or more literal or adapt to the user needs.
Adaptive components: There are many ways to make the same widget. Because different web site implement the same functions differently the user needs to learn how to interact and use with the specific page widgets. Enabling adaptive components would enable the user to use one interface, that they know how to use, across many different sites.
Adaptive pages: This would enable changing or adapting the page layout , cutting out extra features or confusing aspects of the page. This would semantics to enable adaptive interfaces and AT. This would enable adaptive interfaces to allow users to use complex interfaces via an independent and familiar interface tailored to their scenarios and strengths. As this interface is designed for the user/user group, all features are familiar and the same buttons and metaphor will be used across all conforment applications.
Adaptive media:
Adaptive forms and billing: This may result in suggestions to ARIA 2.0 and PF for additional semantics to enable AT to provide techniques

(See more information)

This may result in suggestions to PF group for the ARIA 2.0 specification

Special Projects

There may be other accommodations that are needed that our outside the handshaking approach or adaptable pages

Accessible menu systems for people with cognitive disabilities: This will look at what measures or techniques could make phone menu systems usable by for people with cognitive disabilities, such as enabling people to reach an operator. (Relevant specification: voice Ml)
Interoperable AAC symbols AND
Lexicon and symbol that support low literacy.
Labels for cognitive function: See an early draft.

See more ideas.

Research on Cognitive Functions

This section aims to provide:

A basis for consistent use of terms within our documents
A basis /background for making tags that can be used in meta data or functional accessibility approach
Be a useful resource

Note: We have taken terms and concepts from across the work we are doing on disability and cognitive function. Where more then one term exists for what seems to be a very similar function we have chosen one term but brought the others for reference. We have also reviewed the Caroll taxonomy but it was focused on educational assessment, and sychometric-based models for human intelligence and was therefore not fully relevant (for example: knowledge categories). When quoting a Caroll category we have tried to put the mnemonic after the term such as (RG) or (I).

Here are the cognitive functions that we have identified so far. It is not complete and it is not yet in a taxonomy form.

Reasoning and executive functions

Executive functions (also known as cognitive control and supervisory attentional system) is an umbrella term for the management of cognitive processes such as reasoning and problem solving (goal focused reasoning) as described bellow. Executive function also includes:

emotional control and self-monitoring
shift ( also called task flexibility)
initiation and
planning/organization and
execution

Executive function also relies on or includes: working memory, other memory (short, long ), attention, abstraction, associations, as described bellow.

In making a decision or conclusion we may use:

Fluid (logical) reasoning.
Attitudes and experience from or guiding Crystallized intelligence.
An Affective component involving a person’s emotions (such as fear) and identity (sense of self).
Behavioral (or conative) component involving memory such as long term autobiographical memory.

Reasoning

Fluid reasoning is the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge [Fluid_and_crystallized_intelligence] Fluid intelligence may involves both the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex.
Types of fluid reasoning are:

Deductive Reasoning (RG) ( sometimes called General or Sequential or hypothetico- deductive reasoning). It is the ability to start with stated assertions (rules, premises, or conditions) and to engage in one or more steps leading to a solution to a problem.
Inductive reasoning (Induction (I) Reasoning from specific cases or observations to general rules or broad generalizations. Often requires the ability to combine separate pieces of information in the formation of inferences, rules, hypotheses, or conclusions.
Mathematical intelligence (also called Quantitative Reasoning (RQ)) depends on Ability to inductively (I) and/or deductively (RG) reason with concepts involving mathematical relations and properties.
Piagetian Reasoning (RP): reasoning via seriation (organizing material into an orderly series that facilitates understanding of relationships between events), conservation (awareness that physical quantities do not change in amount when altered in appearance), and classification .

A related idea is Speed of Reasoning (RE): Speed or fluency in performing reasoning tasks [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~itm/688/wk6/CHC%20Definitions.pdf]

Crystallized intelligence (sometimes called Comprehension- Knowledge) is the ability to use skills, knowledge, and experience. It does not equate to memory, but it does rely on accessing information from long-term memory. Crystallized intelligence is one’s lifetime of intellectual achievement, as demonstrated largely through one's vocabulary and general knowledge. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_and_crystallized_intelligence</cite> Crystallized intelligence involves the storage and usage of long-term memories, such as by the hippocampus.
We have included the dependent aspects in the sections on memory and language [ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~itm/688/wk6/CHC%20Definitions.pdf]

Attention

Reasoning and executive functions require attention. Types of attention are:

Selective attention refers to the ability to attend to some stimuli while disregarding others that are irrelevant to the task at hand. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3885/]
Divided attention tasks require the processing of two or more sources of information or the performance of two or more tasks at the same time (Divided attention has usually been associated with significant age-related declines in performance, particularly when tasks are complex.) [5]. The cost of dividing attention is assessed by comparing performance under dual task conditions to performance when the tasks are performed separately. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3885/]
Sustained attention refers to the ability to maintain concentration on a task over an extended period of time. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3885/]

Abstraction

Types of abstraction include:

Essentialism
Object recognition - Abstraction is part of Visual comprehension
Face recognition (seems to be a separate from on=objects)
Facial patterns (such as an angry face)
Linguistical abstractions (such as relation between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.)
Quantities
Numerical concepts
Abstract context of time
Spatial orientation, directions layout of things.
Mechanical abstractions.
Musical abstractions.
Behavioral and social abstractions –
- norms etc
- social cues
- other Behavioral:
  .

Memory

People talk about types of memories are often talking about different categories of types of memory. Any memory based events can be described in all these categories. For example: An event may cause an sensory experience to go into long term memory implicitly,. Here are the types I have identified:

Types – durations based: working , long term, short term, and possibly Intermediary
Types – context based: emotional, procedural, sensory (tactile, smell, Psychomotor Kinestheti, Olfactory) auditory, visual, visuo-spatial, spatial, musical and prospective memory.
Types - awareness level: implicit and explicit

Durations based

Working memory, involves mentally manipulating — is the system that actively holds multiple pieces of transitory information in the mind, where they can be manipulated. .[1]
Baddeley and Hitch feel it is the executive and attention control of short-term memory, but others point out that long term memory can also be involved in working memory.
Short-term memory (also called active or primary memory) typically lasts seconds – such as remembering the phone number while you find a pen and write it down. Sub types are Verbal, visual and spatial. four different units in short-term memory is probably average. Capacity of short-term memory is often called memory span,
Long-term memory (also called reference memory, long-term storage and retrieval (Glr),TSR, Glm) he ability to store and consolidate new information in memory and later fl uently retrieve the stored information. Broad retrieval ability (G) is a related idea

Context based

Episodic memory (autobiographical – time, self, )
Semantic memory (factual)
Visual memory
Visuo-spatia memory
Spatial memory
Musical memory
Auditory memory: Memory for sound patterns (UM),
Procedural memory: Memory for the performance of particular types of action like walking.
Prospective Memory: Much of what we have to remember in everyday life involves prospective memory — remembering to do things in the future, such as keep appointments, return a book to the library, or pay bills on time [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3885/]
Emotional memories: Can be both declarative and procedural memory processes

Awareness based

Implicit memory :(Can be called non-declarative memory ) Memory is built or used without conscious awareness. In contrast with...

Explicit memory: (Can be called declarative memory ) the intentional use of memory such as remembering the time of an appointment or studying for an exam.

Also memories can be stored and recalled as Associative memory (MA), Meaningful memory (MM), Free-recall memory (M6),

Language

Speak, write, read or understand speech or language ,

Spoken languages

The basic skills for spoken languages seem to be Speech perception:

Speech perception: sounds of language are heard, interpreted and understood This depends on:
Auditory Discrimination (Note not L hearing, but the identification and differentiation of sounds also called General sound discrimination (U3),
Temporal tracking (UK)
Listening Ability (LS)
Naming skills (N)
Related memory such as Working Memory, auditory memory - (Memory for sound patterns)
Morphosyntax: T he system of the internal structure of words (morphology) and the way in which words are put together to form phrases and sentences (syntax).
Understanding figural language. Including a simile (a comparison of two things, such as “His cheeks were like roses”, A metaphor, onomatopoeia (a word designed to be an imitation of a sound such as “Bark! Bark!” ), personification ( attribution of a personal nature to inanimate objects) an oxymoron ( opposite or contradictory terms is used together for emphasis such as “organized chaos” ) a paradox ,a Hyperbole (an extreme exaggeration such as “ I was so upset I nearly died”) allusion or idiom(such as : You should keep your eye out for him.) and puns.
Note: Spoken language also require inability to produce voice

Sign language

Sign language without spoken language probably requires a slightly different set of skills such as:

Visual Recognition Skills
Non-vocal Naming - Association of sign and concept
Phoneme Processing and Phonetic coding (PC)
Related memory such as Working Memory, Visual memory, Memory for patterns
Morphosyntax: T he system of the internal structure of words (morphology) and the way in which words are put together to form phrases and sentences (syntax).
Understanding figural language.

Literacy

Beyond basic language, literacy typically requires:

Visual Recognition (see below)
Visual memory –(not effected in downs)
Phoneme Processing and Phonetic coding (PC)
Cross-modal Association Association of sign and concept

Note that many dyslexics achieve literacy without many of these functions or with impaired functioning.

Perception

Visual recognition

(also called visual Perception)
The visual system automatically groups elements into patterns: Proximity, Similarity, Closure, Symmetry, Common Fate (i.e. common motion), and Continuity. (Gestalt psychology)
Functions include:

Object recognition
Face recognition (seems to be a different process to object recognition [ Face and object recognition ((Alex Huk. (1999) "Object and Face Recognition: Lecture Notes." pp. 5]
Pattern recognition

Other Perception

Auditory perception (see Speech perception above for further classifications), Motor, Tactile smell Psychomotor Kinestheti( bodily position, weight, or movement) Olfactory and sensory perception

Speed

Processing speed effect all the functions above. See Caroll.
A related concept is fluency

Knowledge

Types of knowledge that might be required for use of ICT include:

Knowledge of culture
Base Language knowledge including:
Lexical (UL)
Jargon (subject mater)
Web jargon and technology
Web and technology usages and risks
Metaphors and idioms
Icons and symbols
Mathematical knowledge
Mechanical Knowledge (MK)
Knowledge of behaviors
Design metaphor –look
Design functions

Not (yet) fully addressed:

Consciousness
Identity
Emotions (such as fear) moods and motivation
Libido and Sexual function
Creative thought
Personality
Judgment and self-monitoring
Initiative
Inhibition

Note that these are in our mandate – for example: Dementia with Lewy bodies affects the cerebrum where small round lumps of proteins build up and can cause fluctuations of consciousness as well as hallucinations, delusions (firmly held beliefs in things that are not real) and false ideas (such as paranoia).

Areas of the brain

[ http://www.md-health.com/Parts-Of-The-Brain-And-Function.html and http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/brain/Structure.shtml]

Frontal Lobe

Reasoning and problem solving
Initiative, inhibition and behavior
Abstractions
Attention
Creative thought
Some emotion
Reflection
Judgment
Coordination of movements
Generalized and mass movements
Skilled movements and some motor skills
Libido (sexual urges)

Occipital Lobe

Vision
Broca's Area Controls the facial neurons as well as the understanding of speech and language. It

Parietal Lobe

Tactile sensation
Appreciation of form through touch (stereognosis)
Response to internal stimuli (proprioception)
Sensory combination and comprehension
Some language and reading functions
Some visual functions

Temporal Lobe

Some hearing
Memory including Auditory memories and Visual memories
Music
Some behavior and emotions like fear
Sense of identity
Wernicke's Area- This portion of the temporal lobe is formed around the auditory cortex. Fformulate or understand speech.

Limbic System

The limbic system contains glands which help relay emotions.

Amygdala:The amygdala helps the body responds to emotions, memories and fear.
Hippocampus: Used for explicit memory, specifically converting temporary memories into permanent memories which can be stored within the brain. The hippocampus also helps people analyze and remember spatial relationships, allowing for accurate movements.
Hypothalamus: mood, thirst, hunger and temperature.
Thalamus: attention span, sensing pain and tracks the sensations the body is feeling.

Corpus Callosum

Communication between the left and right side of the brain

Cerebellum

Balance and Posture
Cardiac, respiratory, and vasomotor centers

Brain Stem

Motor and sensory pathway to body and face
Vital centers: cardiac, respiratory, vasomotor

Pituitary Gland

Hormonal body processes
Physical maturation
Growth (height and form)
Sexual maturation
Sexual functioning

Sources on Cognitive Functions

1 . Educational taxonomies such as Carol for Cyristalised resing includes Language Development (LD):
Lexical Knowledge (VL): Listening Ability (LS):General (verbal) Information (K0): Range of general stored knowledge (primarily verbal). Information about Culture (K2) Range of stored general cultural knowledge (e.g., music, art) Communication Ability (CM Oral Production and Fluency (OP)
Grammatical Sensitivity (MY): morphology) and sentences (syntax), Foreign Language Proficiency (KL), Foreign Language Aptitude (LA)

2. Inappropriate behavior is comen with Frontotemporal dementia - impaired social interaction

3. Effected in: Alzheimer’s disease, Aphasias, Advanced age, dyslexia, emotional disabilities such as Schizophrenia and PTSD

4. Expressive aphasia left inferior frontal cortex. These patients are described with having severe syntactical deficits, which means that they have extreme difficulty in forming sentences correctly. ((Hessler, Dorte; Jonkers, Bastiaanse (December 2010). "The influence of phonetic dimensions on aphasic speech perception". Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics. 12 24: 980–996.
Receptive aphasia - left temproparietal lobe. Receptive Aphasic patients mostly suffer from lexical-semantic difficulties, but also have difficulties in comprehension tasks. The effect of receptive aphasia on understanding is much more severe.
Hessler, Dorte; Jonkers, Bastiaanse (December 2010). "The influence of phonetic dimensions on aphasic speech perception". Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics. 12 24: 980–996.
Anarthria: Loss of the motor ability that enables speech. Complete loss of the ability to vocalize words as a result of an injury to the part of the brain that is responsible for controlling the larynx

5. (Aphonia: The inability to produce voice.
Alalia: A delay in the development or use of the mechanisms that produce speech.
Dyslalia: Difficulties in talking due to structural defects in speech organs.
Developmental verbal dyspraxia: Motor speech disorder involving impairments in the motor control of speech production.)

6. Carol tend to have abitlites as the main category with memory and sensitivity of such as Tactile sensitivity
(other then Psychomotor abilities which has sub categories of Static strength (P3), Multi-limb coordination (P6), Finger dexterity (P2), Manual dexterity (P1), Arm-hand steadiness (P7),Control precision (P8), Aiming (A1), Gross body equilibrium (P4)

7. Carol brings Processing speed (Gs) such as Cognitive processing speed (Gs) Broad cognitive speediness (Gs) Perceptual speed (P), Rate-of-test-taking (R9), Number facility (N), Speed of reasoning (RE), Reading speed (RS),Writing speed (WS) Reaction and decision Speed (Gt) Correct decision speed (CDS) Processing speed (RT decision speed) Such as Simple reaction time (R1), Choice reaction time (R2), Semantic processing speed (R4), Mental comparison speed (R7), Inspection time (IT)

8. Carol brings Ideational fl uency (FI), Associational (FA), Expressional (FE), Word fluency (FW), Figural (FF), Figural flexibility (FX), Sensitivity to problems (SP), Originality/creativity (FO),Learning abilities (L1) Naming facility (N)