alf5071h;
If I may, are you including the notions of "muscle-memory" in the cognitive category or might it be a separate subject?
I ask this from a sense that cognition is a reasoning/memory higher level "thinking" process whereas "muscle-memory", is perhaps autonomic, which requires actual, ongoing practise which is both cognitive and physical. (I"m a pilot, not a scientist or researcher so don't know what to call it, but I know it exists, and not only for airplanes but also for gymnasts, musicians, dancers, sculpters, race-car drivers, etc., etc.).
For what it's worth, I play a musical instrument, (piano), and know that there is a clear and definite connection between the cognitive and the physical (again, the autonomic, in terms of muscle-memory). That is how those who play a musical instrument can memorize and play entire concertos, (or gigs, etc.), without music in front of them, for example. (I emphasize that this is entirely different from those possessing rare gifts of a true "photographic memory" in which the pages of music are mentally "in view", in detail and recallable at will!).
In fact (and off-topic), I would venture the notion that playing a musical instrument has heretofor unanticipated but definite cognitive and physical transfers to other activities, which have yet to be fully explored. I would include flying an aircraft in this category.
In my experience as a pilot for 42 years, 35 of them on heavy transports, there is a strong connection between the two and they both require constant "nourishment", (physical practise), if they are to remain available and useful, "at the surface".
In fact, let us use music to illustrate the counterexample: - if the music isn't "in the hands" as described above, no amount of cognitive horsepower can make the hands perform flawlessly; the muscle memory has to be there from recent experience.*
*again, the "gifted" case does not prove the negative - for almost all persons, the above is going to be the case.
Last edited by FDMII; 29th Jan 2016 at 22:08.