Working with colleagues in 1956, Benjamin Bloom developed the idea of six levels of cognitive thinking, which he named Bloom’s Taxonomy.  The levels, in order of lowest to highest thinking level, are knowledge; comprehension; application; analysis; evaluation; and synthesis.  For information on Bloom’s Taxonomy, see
http://www.saskschools.ca/curr_content/adapthandbook/learner/cdbrain.html#blooms