CHAPTER 8

1. CHAPTER 8 The Information-Processing Approach

2. The Information-Processing Approach The Nature of the Information-Processing Approach Information, Memory, and Thinking Mechanisms of Change Cognitive Resources: Capacity and Speed of Processing Information

3. What is Thinking? • Thinking: To perceive, encode, represent, and store information from the world

4. Characteristics of Information Processing • The information-processing approach to learning emphasizes that children manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it. Central to this approach are the processes of memory and thinking. • Children develop a gradually increasing capacity for processing information which allows them to acquire increasingly complex knowledge and skills.

5. Information Processing Con’t • As children grow and mature, and as they experience the world, their information processing abilities increase. • These changes are influenced by increase in both capacity and speed of processing. These two characteristics are often referred to as cognitive resources, which are proposed to have an important influence on memory and problem solving. • Both biology and experience contribute to growth in cognitive resources • Brain Structure • Neural: synaptic pruning and myelination

6. Mechanisms of Change • Mechanisms of Change : Three mechanisms work together to create changes in children’s cognitive skills • Encoding – Getting information into memory • Automaticity –involves the ability to process information with little or no effort. • Strategy Construction – involves the discovery of a new procedure for processing information.

7. Mechanisms of Change (Cont’d) • In addition to these mechanisms changes, children's information processing is characterized by self modification. • Self-modification: Represented by metacognition, “knowing about knowing”. That is children learn to use what they have learned in previous circumstances to adapt their responses to a new situation.

8. Metacognition • One example of metacognition is what children know about the best ways to remember what they have read. • Do they know that they will remember what they have read better if they can relate it to their own lives in some way? • Thus in Siegler’s application of information processing to development, children play an active role in their cognitive development when they develop metacognitive strategies.

9. The Information-Processing Approach Attention Developmental Changes What Is Attention?

10. What Is Attention? Attentionis the focusing of mental processes • Sustained attention is the ability to maintain attention for a prolonged period of time. • Selective attention is focusing on a specific aspect of experience that is relevant while ignoring others that are irrelevant. • Divided attention involves concentrating on more than one activity at the same time.

11. Developmental Changes in Attention • Research indicated that older children focused their attention better than younger children and more socially disadvantaged children. • The length of time children can pay attention increases as they get older

12. Developmental Changes in Attention • Increase in selective attention • Increase in attention span • Increase in cognitive control of attention; less impulsivity • Increase in attention to relevant stimuli

13. Getting Students to Pay Attention Encourage attention and minimize distraction Make learning interesting Use cues and gestures for important material Focus on active learning and be aware of individual differences Use media and technology to make learning enjoyable

14. The Information-Processing Approach Memory What Is Memory? Retrieval and Forgetting Encoding Storage

15. Enter the Debate Should teachers require students to engage in rote memorization? YES NO

16. Memory is the retention of information over time. STORAGE RETRIEVAL ENCODING Gettinginformationinto memory Retaininginformationover time Takinginformationout of storage

17. Encoding Strategies REHEARSAL Consistent repetition of information over time DEEP PROCESSING Deeper processing, better memory ATTENTION Concentrate and focus ORGANIZATION Aided by chunking CONSTRUCTING IMAGES ELABORATION Adds to distinctiveness

18. Strategies that will help students encode information • Rehearsal (i.e., conscious repetition) • Elaboration (i.e., adding additional information beyond the basics) • Constructing images (i.e., helping students “visualize” the information or encode it in other non-verbal formats), • Organization (i.e., pointing out relationships among or hierarchies within pieces of information), and • Chunking (i.e., organizing ideas into groups).

19. Memory’s Time Frames Sensory Memory – Retains information for an instant (a fraction of a second to several seconds) Short-Term Memory – Limited capacity; retains for 30 seconds without rehearsal Long-Term Memory – Unlimited capacity over a long period of time (up to a lifetime).

20. Developmental Changes in Memory

21. Baddeley’s Model of Memory

22. Working Memory • Short-term memory(STM): involves the temporary storage of information • Capacity of STM is about 7 items • Information in STM quickly fades • Working memory: our attentional system directs information into STM and guides the active processing of the information (i.e., rehearsal) • Capacity of working memory is larger than that of simple STM • Long term memory: A system for the retention of large amounts of information over long periods of time.

23. Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Theory

24. Long-Term Memory ProceduralMemory DeclarativeMemory Episodic Memory Semantic Memory Memory

25. Long-Term Memory • Long-term memory (LTM) is thought to be high-capacity and long-duration. • Declarative memory is explicit memory. • It is the conscious recollection of information.

26. Long-Term Memory • Declarative memories may be of events (episodic) or semantic (words, ideas, and concepts). • Semantic memory: holds general knowledge of the world (WMD is an acronym for “weapons of mass destruction”) • Episodic memory: holds our personal experiences (where I parked my car)

27. Memory Con’t • Level of processing determines how likely a piece of information is to enter STM • Shallow: how many letters in a word? • Deep: does the word have the same meaning as another term?

28. Semantic Memory • Semantic memory refers to recall of information that is not tied to a specific time or place • The texture of sandpaper • The shape of a toothbrush • The shape of a NASA shuttle • The sound that a shotgun makes when it is cocked for firing • Semantic memory is organized by concepts, which are mental categories for objects or events

29. Procedural Memory • Procedural memory (implicit memory) is memory for skills. • Our ability to perform a movement can be demonstrated, but not easily described in words. • In contrast, declerative memory or explicit memory (semantic and episodic memory) can be verbalized. • A skill is gradually acquired and becomes automatic as we become proficient in that skill

30. Representing Information in Memory • There are three main theories that address how students represent information in their memory. 1. Network Theories 2. Schema Theories 3. Fuzzy Trace Theory

31. Network Theories • Network theories explain how information in memory is organized and connected. • They emphasize nods in the memory. Nodes stand for labels and concepts. • For example students take longer to answer Is an ostrich a bird? Rather than Is canary a bird? • Network is irregular and distorted

32. Schema Theories • long term memory has been compared to a library of books. • Students retrieve information similar to the process they locate a book. • Long-term searches are not exact • Retrieved information is fit into an existing formation (schema) • Schemas: concepts, knowledge, or information about events that already exist in the mind and influence the way we encode information

33. Fuzzy Theories • Another variation of how individuals reconstruct their memories is fuzzy trace theory. • It states that when individuals encode information it creates two types of memory representations: • A verbatim memory trace, which consists of precise details ( e.g., how many cats are in the pet store, 6 or 8? • A fuzzy trace , which is the central idea of information ( e. g., are there more cats or more dogs in the pet store?)

34. Retrieval and Forgetting • When we retrieve something from our memeory we usually search for it in our memeory store. • The search might be automatic such when you ask the student what month it is, the answer will immediately spring to the lips. • But if you ask your student about the name of a guest speaker who came to the class two months earlier, the retrieval process will require more effort.

35. Retrieval Con’t • Serial Position : An item’s position on the list also affects how easy or difficult it will be to remember it. • We recall better at the beginning and end of list . • The primary and recency effect

36. Retrieval Con’t • Another consideration in understanding retrieval is the Encoding Specificity principle: that associations formed at the time of encoding or learning tend to be effective cues. • The more elaboration children use in encoding information , the better their memory of information will be. • Encoding specificity and elaboration reveal how interdependent encoding and retrieval are.

37. Retrieval (Cont’d) • Another aspect of retrieval is the nature of the retrieval task itself. • Recall: Is a memory task in which individuals must retrievepreviously learned information, as in fill-in-the-blank • Recognition: Is a memory task in which individualsidentify learned information, as in multiple choice

38. Forgetting • Some information that we have processed and stored in memory cannot be recalled at some time point. • Forgetting appears not to be a simple function of elapsed time since learning the material. • Forgetting may result from interference of information in the memory systems.

39. Forgetting

40. Improving Memory • Promote understanding • Assist organization of knowledge • Teach mnemonics: Mnemonics are memory aids for remembering information. Mnemonic strategies can involve imagery and words. • Method of loci: Children develop images of items to be remembered and store them in familiar locations (list of concepts stored in rooms of the house so they remember . • Rhymes: Right is tight, left is loose. • Acronyms: WHO • Keyword: Vivid imagery is attached to words.

41. Improving Your Memory Really think about what you want to remember. Pay careful attention to what you want to remember. Minimize interference. Engage in distributed learning/practice. Use visual imagery and other mnemonics. Give yourself extra retrieval cues. Develop your own shorthand codes.

42. Information Processing TheoryTheory into Practice • Ms. Lubna has assigned her students 20 spelling words to learn for the week. She notices that most of her students have no problems remembering how to spell the first few and the last few words, but many struggle with those in themiddle of the list. • Q:Why might students have an easier time remembering how to spell the first and last few words, but struggle with those in the middle of the list? Explain.

43. The Information-Processing Approach

44. Experts • Detect features and meaningful patterns of information • Accumulate more content knowledge and organize it around important ideas and concepts • Retrieve important aspects of knowledge with little effort • Adapt an approach to new situations • Use effective learning strategies

45. Expertise Con’t • Acquiring Expertise: Becoming an expert usually requires deliberate practice, motivation, and talent. • Expertise and teaching: being an expert in a particular area does not mean that the expert is good at helping others learn it. • Pedagogical content knowledge is required to effectively teach a subject.

46. The Information-Processing Approach

47. Metacognition • Metacognition :Knowing about knowing • Metacognitive Knowledge: Monitoring and reflecting on one’s current or recent thoughts • Metacognitive Activity: Students consciously adapt and manage their thinking strategies during problem solving and purposeful thinking

48. Metacognition • Metacognition refers to knowing about knowing. It involves self-awareness and self-reflection. Thus, the more you know about your knowledge, the better you will be at determining the course of action of a problem, the study strategy to use, and the effectiveness of your study habits or techniques.

49. Developmental Changes • Developmental changes in children have an effect on their metacognition. • Metacognition in the younger child is less developed than in the older child. • Younger children’s metamemory is limited; they have an inflated opinion about their memory abilities; and they do not see the advantages of cognitive cuing for memory.

50. The good-information processing model • The good-information processing model emphasizes that competent cognition results from these interacting factors: strategies, content knowledge, motivation, and metacognition.