PSYC-223 Chapter 7-8: Psyc 223 Chapter 7 and 8 Notes
21 Sep 2016
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Psyc 223
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Chapter 7: Cognitive Processes and Academic Skills
Basic Assumptions of Information Processing Theory
-People process information
-We have limited capacity:
•Limited in how much information we can think about
•Limited in how long we we can hold information in our mind before it is lost
•Limited in how quickly we can process information
Origins of Memory
-Infants remember and forget, and can be prompted to remember things that they’ve
forgotten
-Improvements in memory are related to growth in the brain
-Amygdala and hippocampus are related to the initial storage of memories. Develop
very early - by 6 months of age.
-Frontal cortex is related to retrieval of stored memories. Develops much later - into
the second year.
-Part of the hippocampus is not mature enough until about 20 to 24 months of age.
This development of memory during the first two years reflects growth in these two
different brain regions. In other words, as the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex
mature over the first 24 months, children’s memory skills gradually improve.
Strategies for Remembering
-Memory strategies: activities that improve remembering
•Preschoolers use simple strategies like touching an object
•Older children and adolescents use rehearsal, organization, elaboration, and chunking
and cognitive self-regulation
Rehearsal: strategy of repeating information that must be remembered.
Organization: structuring material to be remembered so that related information if
placed together.
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Psyc 223
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Elaboration: embellishing information to be remembered to make it more memorable.
Chunking: organizing related items into one meaningful group.
•Metacognition improves with age
•Students who do not use these strategies natural can be taught to use them
Knowledge and Memory
-Knowledge can help organize memory but can distort our recall
-Scripts: memory structures that describe the sequence in which events occur
-People’s memory of their own lives is autobiographical memory
Autobiographical memory: our memory of the significant events and experiences of our
own lives
Network of Knowledge
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Psyc 223
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
-Infantile amnesia: the inability to remember events from one’s early life
•Adults recall nothing from infancy, but they remember an ever-increasing number of
events from about ages 3 or 4.
•Thus personal experiences from our earliest years usually can’t be recalled because
of inadequate language or inadequate sense of self
-Preschoolers’ testimony can be distorted by adults’ suggestions or by learned
stereotypes
Distortions in Recall
-Effects of Suggestions and Imagination (Loftus)
•Loftus showed that memory distortion is especially likely if the misinformation is
introduced repeatedly but subtly in the context of recounting aspects of the event that
really did occur.
•People can actually remember and elaborate on episodes in their lives that never
actually occurred.
The Social Construction of Autobiographical Memories
-Children recall more about an events if they talk about with their parents
-Children learn from the parents that the important facts to remember about events are
the who’s, when’s, where’s of their experiences
-Parents may ask children questions that have them reconstruct the temporal order of
an event, or to evaluate events, helping the children organize their experiences into
narratives and to recall them as events that have personal significance
*Zone of proximal development: difference between what one can do alone or with
assistance
Fuzzy- Trace Theory: An Alternative Viewpoint
-According to the Fuzzy-Trace theory, most experiences can be stored in memory
exactly (verbatim) or in terms of their basic meaning (gist).
!3
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Document Summary
We have limited capacity: limited in how much information we can think about, limited in how long we we can hold information in our mind before it is lost, limited in how quickly we can process information. Infants remember and forget, and can be prompted to remember things that they"ve forgotten. Improvements in memory are related to growth in the brain. Amygdala and hippocampus are related to the initial storage of memories. Develop very early - by 6 months of age. Frontal cortex is related to retrieval of stored memories. Develops much later - into the second year. Part of the hippocampus is not mature enough until about 20 to 24 months of age. This development of memory during the rst two years re ects growth in these two different brain regions. In other words, as the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex mature over the rst 24 months, children"s memory skills gradually improve.
