Cognitive flexibility as a process

Cognitive Ability as a Process

Zlatoslava Karga, PMHNP-BC, DNP

This morning, I was awakened by noise coming from the kitchen. In our household, several generations live together in a relatively small space—my husband, my mother, my son, and myself. Morning quiet is important to me. It is the time I use to meditate, prepare for the day, and gather my thoughts before beginning work.

When I walked into the kitchen to investigate, I found my son doing something objectively helpful. He had taken on much of the family cooking and was preparing meals for the day. His reasoning was straightforward and logical: if the food is prepared early, everyone has more freedom later. During recent heatwaves, we had also discussed cooking earlier in the day to avoid heating the house during the hottest hours.

His decision made perfect sense when viewed through those particular facts.

However, several other factors had not been incorporated into the decision. It was only six o’clock in the morning. Other people in the household were still asleep. The house is small and poorly insulated from noise. The weather was cooler than it had been during the heatwave, making early cooking less necessary. There were no pressing commitments requiring meals to be completed immediately.

What fascinated me was not the noise itself, but the cognitive process behind the decision.

My son considered one or two variables and arrived at a logical conclusion. What was missing was the simultaneous consideration of multiple competing variables. How will this affect other people? What has changed since the original discussion? Are there new circumstances that should alter the plan? What are the second-order consequences of my actions?

This ability—to hold multiple facts in mind at the same time and weigh them against one another—is not automatic. It is a cognitive skill that develops over time.

Many of our interpersonal struggles may arise not from bad intentions, but from limitations in this skill. We become anxious because we focus on one possibility while overlooking others. We become depressed because we interpret events through a narrow lens. We become frustrated with people because we assume they are considering the same factors we are, when in reality they may only be seeing a small portion of the picture.

As humans mature, one of the most important developments is learning to expand the number of variables we can process simultaneously. We learn to consider context. We learn to anticipate consequences. We learn to account for the experiences and needs of other people.

For me, nursing became the training ground for developing this ability.

When I first worked as a registered nurse, I quickly discovered that everyday decision-making on a hospital unit required juggling enormous amounts of information. I might have six patients, each with different diagnoses, medications, family dynamics, laboratory values, risks, and treatment plans. At the same time, phones were ringing, physicians were calling, family members were asking questions, and new information was arriving constantly.

The work forced me to develop a different way of thinking.

I could no longer focus on a single fact and make a decision. I had to consider dozens of factors simultaneously. I had to constantly reassess priorities, predict potential outcomes, and adapt when circumstances changed. The experience was mentally exhausting, but it gradually transformed the way I processed information.

In many ways, life itself is a training ground for cognitive development. Some people encounter experiences that force them to practice complex decision-making daily. Others may have fewer opportunities to develop those skills. The difference is not intelligence. It is training.

Cognitive ability is not a fixed trait. It is a process.

The capacity to hold multiple perspectives, integrate competing facts, anticipate consequences, and understand the impact of our actions on others is something that can be strengthened over time. Like a muscle, it develops through repeated use.

Looking back at this morning, I was reminded that many conflicts are not failures of character. Often they are simply moments where one person is operating with a smaller set of variables than another. The challenge is not merely to be right. The challenge is to continually expand our ability to see the larger picture.

That, perhaps, is one of the most important forms of growth a person can achieve.

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