PSYC 2450 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Mnemonic, Free Recall, Lev Vygotsky
27 Jun 2018
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Chapter 9 Cognitive Development: Information-Processing Perspectives and Connectionism 1
Chapter 9
Cognitive Development: Information-
Processing Perspectives and Connectionism
Chapter 9 Outline and Summary
The information-processing approach employs a mind/computer analogy or, rather, metaphor.
The mind’s hardware includes the brain, the sensory receptors, and their neural
interconnections—in other words, our nervous system. The mind’s software includes rules and
strategies that specify how information is registered, interpreted, stored, retrieved, and analyzed.
Information Flow and the Multistore Model
Information enters the information-processing system through the sensory registers. There are
separate sensory registers for each of our senses, and these registers hold large amounts of
information for very brief periods of time. If the information that enters the sensory registers is
not attended to, it is typically gone in less than a second. If the information is attended to, it
passes into the short-term store, which has an extremely limited capacity. On average the short-
term store holds between five and nine pieces of information. The short-term store is also called
working memory, and it can hold information while the information is processed.
New information that is operated on while in the short-term store passes into the long-term store.
This is a vast and relatively permanent storehouse that includes a general knowledge base,
memories of past experiences, and strategies that can be used to process information.
For information to pass between the various stores it must be actively channelled or processed.
The term executive control processes refers to the processes involved in planning and monitoring
attention and the flow of information. The term metacognition refers to an individual’s
knowledge of his or her own cognitive abilities and cognitive processes. So, unlike computers,
humans are active in initiating, organizing, and monitoring cognitive strategies, and even in
choosing what problems to solve.
Developmental Differences in “Hardware”: Information-Processing Capacity
1. Development of the Short-Term Store
Children’s memory span for digits shows regular increases with age. A 3-year-old can
typically recall approximately 3 digits in this type of task; there is an increase of
approximately 1 digit with each additional 2 years of age until the span levels out at
approximately 7 digits. Reliable age differences are also found in working memory;
working-memory span is usually one or two items lower than short-term memory span.
One suggestion is that the observed age-related increases in memory span partially reflect an
increase in processing efficiency. Another contributor may be the increased use of memory
strategies, as well as the development of more sophisticated and more efficient memory
strategies, rather than simply age differences in the capacity of short-term store. However,
recent research on age differences in span of apprehension suggests that there are
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Chapter 9 Cognitive Development: Information-Processing Perspectives and Connectionism 2
developmental changes in capacity of short-term store. Nonetheless, differences observed in
memory span are also influenced by children’s prior knowledge of the material to be
remembered as they can more rapidly process information in that domain. However, despite
the domain-specific processing efficiency observed, older children still tend to process most
types of information faster than younger children, which contributes to larger memory spans.
2. Changes in Processing Speed
Young children require more time to execute cognitive operations than older children do.
Increased myelinization of neurons in the associative areas of the brain and the pruning of
unnecessary neural synapses that could interfere with efficient information processing are
two maturational processes that may underlie an increase in processing speed.
Developmental Differences in “Software”: Strategies and Knowledge of
“Thinking”
1. The Development of Strategies
Strategies are deliberately implemented, goal-directed operations; age differences in strategy
use account for a substantial portion of the age-related differences in overall cognitive
performance. In general, younger children use strategies less effectively than older children,
and they utilize fewer strategies in the processing of information.
2. Production and Utilization Deficiencies
Even preschool children show some evidence of strategy use, although the strategies that
they devise tend to be simple. Some researchers have found that children who do not
spontaneously use complex strategies can be taught more elaborate strategies and will often
benefit from the use of these strategies. This suggests that younger children may be
experiencing production deficiencies. Rather than lacking the cognitive capacity to use
advanced strategies, they simply fail to produce or devise strategies that are more complex.
Further evidence of production deficiencies come from the fact that young children will not
rehearse for a memory test, unless they are specifically reminded to do so.
However, when children first acquire a more sophisticated strategy they may actually appear
to be less efficient than when they were using a simpler strategy that had been well practised.
This represents a utilization deficiency, rather than a production deficiency. The child is
generating (producing) the strategy but using it inefficiently. There are three reasons that
utilization deficiencies might occur.
First, executing novel strategies may require a large portion of the child’s limited cognitive
capacity; consequently, working memory may have few cognitive resources remaining to
select and store the information needed to solve the problem effectively. When this occurs
the child may actually abandon the new strategy and utilize a simpler fall-back strategy that
requires fewer cognitive resources. However, with continued practice the new strategy
should also become “automatized” and thus require fewer cognitive resources. Second, new
strategies can be intrinsically interesting, and children may become caught up in the “fun” of
the mechanics of the strategy and may not effectively monitor the accuracy of the
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Chapter 9 Cognitive Development: Information-Processing Perspectives and Connectionism 3
information they are processing. Third, metacognition is less developed in younger children,
and they may not be aware that they are failing to benefit from using a new strategy.
3. Multiple-Strategy and Variable-Strategy Use
The development of strategy use is not stage-like. Instead, individuals generally have a
variety of strategies to draw from in processing information, and they select from among
those strategies in trying to solve problems; older children typically have a larger number of
strategies from which to select. Siegler and his colleagues have formulated a strategy choice
model to capture this concept of multiple-strategy use and to describe how strategies change
over time. In this model, when children first encounter novel problems, simple or well-
practised strategies will be selected most of the time; but with practice and maturation, more
effortful strategies that are more efficient will be selected with increasing frequency.
According to this adaptive strategy choice model, children choose among suitable strategies
for different problems such that strategy use may change with time and with changing
problems.
4. What Children Know about Thinking
While a lot of our thinking is implicit, or unconscious, much of our thinking or cognition is
explicit, or conscious. In order to regulate our thinking, we need to understand what thinking
is. Preschool children often confuse remembering, knowing, and guessing, and young
children also think they have greater control over their thoughts than they really do.
Research has shown that children’s awareness of their own thoughts and their ability to
distinguish between consciousness and unconsciousness develop during childhood, and
reflect the development of metacognition.
5. Implicit Cognition, or Thought Without Awareness
Most of infants’ and young children’s knowledge or cognition is implicit, that is, without
awareness. Implicit learning is an early-developing ability. For example, recent research has
shown that 6- and 10-year-old children learn serial sequences of responses as well as adults
do, despite having no explicit knowledge of what they have learned. Similarly, research has
demonstrated that implicit memory is an early-developing ability. Further, although age
differences are found on tests of explicit learning and memorization and on children’s
understanding of what it means to think, few age differences are found on tests of implicit
learning or memory. Together, these results suggest that although both implicit and explicit
cognition can be explained in terms of information-processing mechanisms, they may follow
very different developmental patterns.
Fuzzy-Trace Theory: An Alternative Viewpoint
Fuzzy-trace theory proposes that there are important developmental differences in the way in
which children represent problem information. Information can be represented along a
continuum that ranges from literal verbatim representations to vague, fuzzy representations
(gists). Gists preserve essential content, but not precise details. Fuzzy traces are accessed more
easily than verbatim traces; fuzzy traces also generally require fewer of our limited cognitive
resources when they are utilized to solve problems. Gist information is less susceptible to
interference and less likely to be forgotten than verbatim information. Prior to age 5 or 7,
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Document Summary
The information-processing approach employs a mind/computer analogy or, rather, metaphor. The mind"s hardware includes the brain, the sensory receptors, and their neural interconnections in other words, our nervous system. The mind"s software includes rules and strategies that specify how information is registered, interpreted, stored, retrieved, and analyzed. Information enters the information-processing system through the sensory registers. There are separate sensory registers for each of our senses, and these registers hold large amounts of information for very brief periods of time. If the information that enters the sensory registers is not attended to, it is typically gone in less than a second. If the information is attended to, it passes into the short-term store, which has an extremely limited capacity. On average the short- term store holds between five and nine pieces of information. The short-term store is also called working memory, and it can hold information while the information is processed.
