The Stage Approach

...Draw and describe a model of the stage

approach to information processing to
learning, giving original examples as to
how you as teacher could use this theory
to structure the learning process to help
students learn better.

Developed by W. Huitt (1999)

The Information Processing Approach

The cognitive learning theory is

represented as an S-O-R paradigm. The
organism is treated as an active processor
of information.

Stimulus Organism Response

(S) (O) (R)
 The Stage Approach

One of the major issues in cognitive psychology

is the study of memory. The stage theory
proposes that information is processed and
stored in 3 stages.
The Stage Approach
 The Stage Approach

In the behavioral model, an external stimulus

either
• is associated with a response as a result
of contiguous placement;
• elicits a naturally occurring response;
• changes the probability a voluntary
response will occur again.
 The Stage Approach

In the cognitive model, the learning process

begins when an external stimulus activates
a sensory receptor cell.

This model shows an external stimulus

activating a sensory receptor cell that results
in the generation of a “sensory memory.”
The Stage Approach
 The Stage Approach

Sensory memory is affiliated with the

transduction of energy (change from one
energy from to another).

The environment makes available a variety of

sources of information (light, sound, smell, heat,
cold, etc.), but the brain only understands
electrical energy.
 The Stage Approach

The body has special sensory receptor cells that

transduce (change from one form of energy to
another) this external energy to something the
brain can understand.

In the process of transduction, a memory is

created. This memory is very short (less than
1/2 second for vision; about 3 seconds for
hearing).
 The Stage Approach

It is absolutely critical that the learner initially

process (attend) to the information at this
beginning stage in order to transfer it to the
next one. Otherwise, according to the stage
model of memory, the information is
immediately forgotten.
 The Stage Approach

If the stimulus that activates a sensory

receptor cell is attended to, it is combined with
information stored in long-term memory, and
brought into short-term memory.
The Stage Approach
 The Stage Approach

Short-term memory is sometimes called

working memory (although recent research
has demonstrated these are two separate
issues) and relates to what we are thinking
about at any given moment in time as well as
what we have attended to in the recent past.

In Freudian terms, this is working memory is

called the conscious.
 The Stage Approach

Short-term memory is created by our paying

attention to an external stimulus, an internal
thought, or both.

It will initially last somewhere around 15-30

seconds unless it is repeated (called
maintenance or rote rehearsal), at which
point it may be available for up to 20
minutes.
 The Stage Approach

The hypothalamus is a brain structure thought

to be involved in this shallow processing of
information.
The frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex is the
structure associated with working memory.
 The Stage Approach

For example, you are processing the words

you read on the screen in your frontal lobes.
However, if I ask, "What is your telephone
number?" your brain immediately calls that
from long-term memory and replaces what
was previously there.
 The Stage Approach

Another major limit on information processing

in STM is in terms of the number of units that
can be processed an any one time.
Miller (1956) gave the number as 7 + 2, but
more recent research suggests the number
may be more like 5 + 2 for most things we are
trying to remember.

Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two:

Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological
Review, 63, 81-97.
 The Stage Approach

There are three major concepts for getting

information into STM:
First, individuals are more likely to pay
attention to a stimulus if it has an interesting
feature. We are more likely to get an
orienting response if this is present.
 The Stage Approach

There are three major concepts for getting

information into STM:
Second, individuals are more likely to pay
attention if the stimulus activates a known
pattern. To the extent we have students call
to mind relevant prior learning before we
begin our presentation, we can take
advantage of this principle.
 The Stage Approach

There are three major concepts for getting

information into STM:
Third, because of the variability in how
much individuals can work with (for some it
may be three, for others seven) it is necessary
to point out important information.
If some students can only process three
units of information at a time, we need to
make certain it is the most important
three.
 The Stage Approach

There are two major concepts for retaining

information in STM:
• organization
• repetition
 The Stage Approach

There are four major types of organization

that are most often used in instructional
design:

Classification by category
Component
or concept (e.g., the
(part/whole)
components of the
teaching/learning model);
 The Stage Approach

There are four major types of organization

that are most often used in instructional
design:

Chronological;
Sequential cause/effect; building to
climax (e.g., baking a cake,
reporting on a research
study
 The Stage Approach

There are four major types of organization

that are most often used in instructional
design:
Central unifying idea or
criteria (e.g., most important
Relevance principles of instruction for
boys and girls, appropriate
management strategies for
middle school and high
school students)
 The Stage Approach

There are four major types of organization

that are most often used in instructional
design:
Relational words or phrases
used to indicate qualitative
Transitional change over time (e.g., stages
(connective) in Piaget's theory of
cognitive development or
Erikson's stages of
socioemotional
development)
 The Stage Approach

A related issue to organization is the concept

of chunking or the grouping into pieces of
data into units.

For example, the letters "d b e" constitute

three units of information while the word
"bed" represents one unit even though it is
composed of the same number of letters.
 The Stage Approach

A related issue to organization is the concept

of chunking or the grouping into pieces of
data into units.

Chunking is a major technique for getting

and keeping information in short-term
memory; it is also a type of elaboration that
will help get information into long-term
memory.
 The Stage Approach

Repetition or rote rehearsal is a technique we

all use to try to "learn" something.

However, in order to be effective this must be

done after forgetting begins.
Researchers advise that the learner should not
immediately repeat the content (or skill), but
wait a few minutes and then repeat.
 The Stage Approach

Remember that learning is defined as “the

relatively permanent change in behavior (or
behavior potential) as a result of experience
or practice.
Until information is processed into long-term
memory, learning has not occurred.
 The Stage Approach

In Freudian terms, long-term memory is also

called preconscious and unconscious
memory.
Preconscious means that the information is
relatively easily recalled (although it may
take several minutes or even hours) while
unconscious refers to data that is not
available during normal consciousness.
 The Stage Approach

It is preconscious memory that is the focus of

the study of long-term memory in cognitive
psychology, although the levels-of-processing
theory acknowledges that there is much we
"know" that is not easily accessed.

The two processes most likely to move

information into long-term memory are
elaboration and distributed practice
(referred to as periodic review in the direct
instruction model).
 The Stage Approach

There are several examples of elaboration

that are commonly used in the teaching/
learning process:

Imaging Creating a mental picture

 The Stage Approach

There are several examples of elaboration

that are commonly used in the teaching/
learning process:

Method of Ideas or things to be

loci-- remembered are connected
(locations) to objects located in a
familiar location
 The Stage Approach

There are several examples of elaboration

that are commonly used in the teaching/
learning process:

Ideas or things to be
Pegword remembered are connected
method to specific words (e.g., one-
bun, two-shoe, three-tree,
etc.)
 The Stage Approach

There are several examples of elaboration

that are commonly used in the teaching/
learning process:

Rhyming Information to be remember

(songs, is arranged in a rhyme (e.g.,
phrases) 30 days hath September,
April, June and November,
etc
 The Stage Approach

There are several examples of elaboration

that are commonly used in the teaching/
learning process:

The first letter of each word

Initial in a list is used to make a
letter sentence (the sillier, the
better)
 The Stage Approach

In summary, the three processes of the stage

approach are very similar to that postulated
by the levels-of-processing approach:
• Attention (process to STM)
• Repetition (maintain in STM)
• Elaboration (process to LTM)
 The Stage Approach

A major distinction is the focus of the model:

• Placement into memory (stage approach)
• Retrieval from memory (levels-of-processing)
 The Stage Approach

The parallel distributed processing and

connectionistic models focus more on the
organization of knowledge which is covered in
the next presentation.