Chapter 8 : Memory & Information Processing

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Chapter 8Memory and Information Processing
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Memory Information Processing

• Information Processing Approach
• Reflects the Cognitive Revolution
• Used computer as model
• Hardware is the computer itself
• In humans it is the brain
• Software programs- e.g., word processing
• In humans how information is registered,
  interpreted, stored, retrieved and analyzed

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Memory Systems

• Sensory register fleeting
• With attention, encoding occurs
• Storage
• Short-term memory - limited to 6 items
• Working memory - active STM
• Long-term memory relatively permanent
• Retrieval
• Recognition Recall Cued Recall

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• Figure 8.1

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Implicit and Explicit Memory

• Implicit memory
• Unintentional, automatic
• Information from everyday experiences
• Does not change over lifespan
• Explicit memory
• Deliberate, effortful
• Increases from infancy to adulthood

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Problem Solving

• Using the information processing system to reach
  a goal (solve a problem)
• Executive control processes
• Selection from storage
• Planning, monitoring, interpreting, etc.
• Parallel processing
• Rather than sequential tasks

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Problem Solving 2

• Possible difficulties for young children
• Not paying attention to relevant aspects
• Unable to hold info in working memory
• Lack strategies for
• Transfer from STM to LTM
• Retrieval from LTM
• Not enough knowledge to understand

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The Infant

• Imitation
• Of facial expressions by 6 weeks
• Deferred imitation by 6 months
• Habituation present at birth
• Operant conditioning
• Ribbon mobile task
• Cued recall kick when ribbon attached

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Four Hypotheses

• Dramatic improvements in learning, memory and
  problem solving
• 4 major hypotheses as to why
• 1) Changes in basic capacities?
• Not storage or senses
• Changes in speed allow parallel processing
• Automaticity frees working memory space

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Four Hypotheses (continued)

• 2) Do memory strategies change?
• Rehearsal by age 7
• Organization by age 10
• Elaboration later
• Retrieval strategies
• External cues needed when younger

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Four Hypotheses (continued)

• 3) Changes in knowledge about memory?
• Metamemory knowledge of memory
• Present in young children
• Awareness of memory processes is beneficial even
  to young children
• Gets better with age
• Experience is important

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Four Hypotheses (continued)

• 4) Changes in world knowledge?
• Yes. Knowledge base clearly affects learning and
  memory
• Domain familiarity and expertise
• E.g., Chi (1978) study of Chess

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Autobiographical Memories

• Infantile Amnesia before age 2 - 3
• Lack of language
• Fuzzy trace theory
• Scripts Typical sequence of actions
• Affect memory
• Eyewitness Memory
• Improves with age younger suggestible
• Accuracy better with open questions

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Changes in Problem Solving

• Improves with age in childhood
• New cognitive structures (Piaget)
• Rule Assessment (Siegler)
• More efficient strategies
• Natural selection
• Most adaptive strategy survives

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Adolescence

• New strategies emerge (elaboration)
• Better use of strategies
• Basic capacities increase (e.g., speed)
• Knowledge base increases
• Metacognition improves

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Adulthood Developing Expertise

• Domain specific knowledge base increases
• Strategy use
• More organized
• More elaborative techniques
• Also domain specific
• Automaticity of more information
• Autobiographical memories from age 15-25 is
  higher than from other points in life

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Memory and Aging

• Older adults learn more slowly
• Remember less learned information
• Declines by age 70
• Timed tasks, unfamiliar tasks
• Recall vs. recognition
• Explicit memory tasks more trouble
• Cognitively demanding tasks

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Explaining Declines

• Negative beliefs affect memory skills
• Strategy use not spontaneous
• Attention becomes more effortful (motivation)
• Processing speed decreases
• Sensory, health, and lifestyle changes
• Cohort differences (age and IQ)
• Declines NOT universal

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• Fig 8.9

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Problem Solving

• Unfamiliar tasks more difficult
• Meaninglessness a problem
• Contextual view
• Evaluate nature of the task
• Is speed required
• Unfamiliar, unexercised skills
• Consider individual differences
• Everyday functioning maintained