Chapter 7: InformationProcessing Approaches to Cognitive Development

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Chapter 7 Information-Processing Approaches to
Cognitive Development

• 7.1 An Introduction to Information Processing
• 7.2 Memory
• 7.3 Academic Skills

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7.1 An Introduction to Information Processing

• Basic Features of the Information-Processing
  Approach
• How Information Processing Changes with
  Development
• Comparing Information Processing and Piagets
  Theory

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Basic Features of the Information-Processing
Approach

• People and computers are both symbol processors.
• Most information-processing theorists view the
  mind as a complex, symbol-manipulating system
  which information flows.
• Hardware includes sensory, working, and
  long-term memory. Software is task specific.

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Computer Model

• The distinction between hardware and software
  Mental hardware refers to mental structures that
  are built in and that allow the mind to operate.
  Mental software refers to mental programs that
  are the basis for performing particular tasks.

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Information-Processing Theories

• Information from the environment is encoded or
  taken in by the system and retained in symbol
  form.
• A variety of internal processes operate on it,
  revising its symbolic structure into a more
  effective representation, then decoding it or
  interpreting its meaning, by comparing it with
  other information in the system.

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Information-Processing Theory

• Some investigators use computer-like diagrams or
  flow charts to map the series of steps children
  and adults execute when faced with a problem or
  task.
• Atkinson Shiffrins Store Model assumes that
  information is held or stored in three parts of
  the system for processing The hardware of the
  system is as follows.

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Store Model

• Sensory Register Information first enters the
  system via the senses. This information is in
  its raw,unanalyzed form and is held only for a
  few seconds.
• Working or Short-term Memory- is the ongoing,
  conscious part of our memory, it works actively
  on a limited amount of information and can use
  long term memory as required for the task at
  hand.

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Store Model

• Working memory also stores the results of its
  analysis briefly while used in giving meaning to
  ongoing processes.
• Long Term Memory is our long term storage, our
  permanent knowledge base, and is considered
  limitless. It includes facts, personal events,
  and skills. Information is rarely forgotten from
  LTM but is sometimes hard to access.

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Store Model

• Mental software programs that allow the
  completion of mental tasks such processes as
  understanding, searching, comparing, and
  responding are mental programs that allow a
  question to be answered. What are some other
  programs that you use to complete tasks?

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Comparing Information Processing and Piagets
Theory

• Piaget presented a single, comprehensive theory
  whereas, information processing is a general
  approach that encompasses many theories with
  specific components of cognitive development. The
  advantage of Information Processing is that
  specific components are described with great
  precision.

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Comparison of Theories

• Piaget emphasized qualitative change in stages,
  whereas information processing emphasizes
  gradual, age-related change in cognitive skill.

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How Information Processing Changes with
Development

• As children development, they use more efficient
  strategies. As they get older, they use
  strategies that are faster, more accurate, and
  more efficient. Parents and teachers often show
  children more effective strategies. And children
  also learn from watching more skilled children.

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Changes With Development

• With input from others and observations children
  make, mental software becomes more powerful and
  efficient. These changes can occur either
  abruptly or gradually.
• Increased working memory capacity- compared to
  younger children, older children have more
  working memory to allocate to mental software and
  storage.

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Changes With Development

• More effective inhibitory processes- Most of the
  time, irrelevant ideas are prevented from
  interfering (through inhibition) with task
  relevant ideas currently in working memory.
  Inhibitory processes allow older childrens
  thinking to be more sophisticated with fewer
  disruptions.

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Changes With Development

• Increased automatic processing- In the early
  phases of a new skill, each step must be learned
  and stored. After gaining proficiency, individual
  steps are unnecessary and more working memory is
  available for other uses.

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Changes With Development

• Since children have limited experience at tasks,
  they perform very few of them automatically.
• However, with experience at a task, more
  processes become automatic which frees working
  memory capacity for other processes.

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Changes With Development

• When faced with complex tasks, that involve many
  processes, older children, adolescents, adults
  can succeed more easily because they can perform
  some of the processes automatically.

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Changes With Development

• Faster processing speed- As children develop,
  they complete mental processes at a faster rate.
• Age differences in processing speed are critical
  when a large number of actions are required in a
  fixed amount of time.

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Changes With Development

• Five types of changes- more efficient strategies,
  more working memory capacity, better inhibitory
  processes, more automatic processing, and more
  rapid processing- all occur throughout infancy,
  childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. And
  sometimes the changes interact with each other.
  Give some examples.

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7.2 Memory

• Origins of Memory
• Strategies for Remembering
• Knowledge and Memory

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Origins of Memory

• Rovee-Colliers work showed thre important
  features of memory as early as 2-3 mos. of age
  Babies can remember an event from the past, Over
  time, they will forget that event and, A cue can
  be used to help prompt them to recall forgotten
  material.

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Origins of Memory

• As children begin to talk, their memory can be
  studied using the same methods as used with older
  children and adults. Research has linked age
  related improvement with More effective
  strategies for remembering and, a growing factual
  knowledge of the world allowing better and more
  complete organization of information for better
  memory.

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Strategies for Remembering

• Memory strategies are activities that are
  necessary for more effectively improving the
  ability to remember. Some strategies help
  maintain information in STM, others help transfer
  information to LTM, and still others help
  retrieve information from LTM.

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Changes In Strategy Use

• Children use memory strategies early.
• Preschool children look at or touch objects,
  elementary school children begin to use rehearsal
  and with time, additional strategies are learned
  for differing tasks.

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Changes In Strategy Use

• After choosing a strategy, children learn to
  monitor its effectiveness.
• Monitoring improves with age.
• Analyzing, strategizing, and monitoring are key
  elements of productive studying.

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Figure 7-5
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Knowledge and Memory

• Knowledge which helps to organize memory and give
  it meaning increases with age.
• Often knowledge is depicted as a network linked
  by associations such as membership in a category
  or properties.
• Still others, are scripts which are used to
  describe the sequence in which events occur,
  e.g., going to a fast food restaurant.

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Memory

• Knowledge can improve memory but it can also
  distort our recall. If a specific experience
  does not conform to memory, then it can be
  forgotten or reconfigured in accordance with past
  experience.

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Autobiographical Memory

• Peoples memory of their own lives is
  autobiographical memory and refers to memory of
  significant events and experiences in their
  lives.
• It is important because it allows them to
  construct a personal life history.

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Autobiographical Memory

• These memories allows people to relate their
  experiences to others creating socially shared
  memories.
• Autobiographical memories originate in preschool
  years when parents encourage children to remember
  past events and recall them verbally. Often
  parents focus on the Who, What, Where, When, and
  Why of the events. They also emphasize the
  importance of time and causal factors in
  organizing the past. Give examples.

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Autobiographical Memory

• Infantile amnesia denotes forgetting of events
  from early in life. Adults usually recall
  memories from 3 or 4 yrs old forward. Why do we
  have infantile amnesia?

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Infantile Amnesia

• There are some possible explanations for
  infantile amnesia. Learning language allows
  representation of the past in words making
  prelingual memories difficult to retrieve.
  Another explanation is development of the sense
  of self. Children gain a sense of self at 1 to 2
  yrs old which infants lack prohibiting memory
  formation.

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Eyewitness testimony

• Preschoolers testimony can be distorted by
  adults suggestions because of the adults
  position of authority.
• When children are repeatedly questioned, they
  confuse what actually happened with what has been
  suggested may have happened.

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Study on Influencing Preschoolers

• Who were the investigators and what was their
  aim?
• How did the investigators measure the topic of
  interest?
• Who were the children? And, what was the design
  of the study?
• Were there ethical concerns, what were the
  results of the study, and conclusions?

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7.3 Academic Skills

• Reading
• Writing
• Knowing and Using Numbers

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Reading

• Prereading skills knowing letters of the
  alphabet (since words are made up of letters) is
  important in learning how to read.
• And phonological awareness or knowing sounds of
  letters increases the rate at which children
  learn to read.

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Reading

• The correlation between childrens awareness on
  word sounds in kindergarten and reading
  performance in first grade is .82. As children
  get older, phonological skills continue to be a
  good predictor of reading ability. Parents
  reading rhymes helps children become more aware
  of word sounds.

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Reading

• Recognizing words one of the first techniques in
  learning to read is sounding out. Beginning
  readers will try whole word recognition and if it
  fails, they will use sounding out. Readers also
  use context to help them recognize words in
  sentences.

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Reading

• Comprehension As children gain more reading
  experience, they have better comprehension of
  what they read.
• Several factors contribute to improved
  comprehension.

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Reading Factors

• Working memory capacity increases, which means
  that older children and better readers can store
  of a sentence in memory as they try to identify
  the propositions it contains.

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Reading Factors

• Children acquire more general knowledge of their
  world which allows them to understand more of
  what they read.
• With experience, children are better at
  monitoring their comprehension.

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Reading Factors

• With experience, children more appropriate
  reading strategies. Older readers are more
  capable of selecting a reading strategy that fits
  the material being read.

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Writing

• Older writers have more to tell as they gain
  knowledge about the world and incorporate that
  knowledge into their writing.
• Older writers know how to organize their writing,
  knowledge telling for the younger writers vs
  knowledge transforming strategies, (what to
  include to convey the point) in adolescence.

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Writing

• Older writers are better able to deal with the
  mechanical requirements of writing.
• Older writers are better able to revise their
  writing because they can detect problems and
  correct them.

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Knowing and Using Numbers

• Babies distinguish quantities because they
  recognize that quantity or amount is one of the
  ways for objects to differ.
• Preschoolers counting is principled even though
  its full of errors. There are 3 basic principles
  of counting mastered.

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Counting

• One to one principle There is only one number
  name for each object counted.
• Stable order principle Number names must be
  counted in the same order.
• Cardinality principle The last number name
  differs from the previous ones in the sequence by
  denoting the number of objects.

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Using Numbers

• Children use different strategies to add and
  subtract as they develop.
• U.S. students dont fare well when compared to
  students worldwide in math skills. What happens
  when we compare the U.S. Students to Taiwanese
  and Japanese students.

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• 50 more time in school
• spend more time on homework
• parents have higher standards
• parents emphasize effort, not ability, for success

Figure 7-11