Full Idea
Categorization, deduction, induction, analogy-making, linguistic understanding, and planning - all of these are higher cognitive capacities.
Gist of Idea
We can identify a set of cognitive capacities which are 'higher order'
Source
Edouard Machery (Doing Without Concepts [2009], 1.1)
Book Reference
Machery,Edouard: 'Doing Without Concepts' [OUP 2009], p.9
A Reaction
His 'lower' competences are perceptual and motor. I say the entry to the higher competences are abstraction, idealisation and generalisation. If you can't do these (chimpanzees!) you will not be admitted.