COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Information-Processing
Perspectives

Costanilla, QuenieFe
Maban, AthenaDawn
Sarrosa, BryanJohn
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:
Information-Processing Perspectives

Tableof contents
• The Multistore Model
• Development of Memory
• Retaining and Retrieving Information Analogical
Reasoning
• Arithmetic Skills
• Counting and Arithmetic Strategies
• Evaluating the Information-Processing Perspective
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:
Information-Processing Perspectives

Piaget’sandVygotsky’stheorieshavehadaprofoundinfluenceonour understandingof
cognitivedevelopment. Piaget sawchildrenas activeagents in theirowndevelopment,
always constructing knowledge and changing their cognitive structures to better
understand the world. Vygotsky saw children as active participants in collaborative
dialogueswithothers,acquiringthetoolsof thoughtappropriatefortheirculture.Yetthe
shortcomingsoftheseapproaches ledmanyscholarstobelievethatafreshoutlookon
humancognitionwas necessary.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:
Information-Processing Perspectives

Multistore
Model
What is the Multistore
Model?
Themulti-store model is anexplanationof memory
proposed by Atkinson andShiffrin which assumes
there are three unitary (separate) memory stores,
and that information is transferred between these
storesinalinear sequence.

Each of the memory stores differs in the way

information is processed (encoding), how much
informationcanbestored(capacity),andforhowlong
(duration).
 The Multistore Model
• Information-processing theorists use the analogy of the mind as a
computer,withinformationflowingthroughalimited-capacity system
composedofmentalhardwareandsoftware.

• The multistore model depicts the human information processing

systemasconsistingofasensoryregistertodetect,or“login,”input;a
short-term store (STS), whereinformationis stored temporarily
untilwecanoperateonit;andapermanentorlong- termstore(LTS).

• Alsoincludedinmostinformation-processingmodelsisaconcept of
executive control processes, or metacognition, which includes
processes by which we plan, monitor, and control all phases of
informationprocessing
 Types of Memory Duration Capacity Encoding

Sensory Store (Sensory Register) SenseSpecific

The first information-processing store, in which all sensoryexperience (e.g.different storesfor
stimuli are noticed and are briefly available for ¼to½second
(verylargercapacity) eachsense)
furtherprocessing.

Short-term Store (STS)

The second information-processing store, in 0-18seconds
which stimuliareretainedforseveralseconds 7+/- 2items MainlyAuditory
andoperatedon(alsocalledworkingmemory).

Long-term Store (LTS)

The third information-processing store, in MainlySemantic
which informationthat hasbeenexaminedand Unlimited Unlimited
(but canbevisualand
interpretedispermanentlystored forfuture
use. auditory)
Development of the
Multistore Model
Theaspectsofchildren’s informationprocessingthatinfluencealltypesofthinking:
• Thecapacityoftheshort-termstore(hardware);
• Thespeedofprocessing(hardware);
• Children’suseofstrategies(software);
• Children’s understanding of what it means to think (metacognition, or executive
functioning)(software);
• their knowledge base—what children know about the things they are thinking about
(relatedtothefouraboveandinfluencingnearlyallformsofchildren’sthinking);
• theirattention—theprocessofselectingwhatenvironmentalstimulitheywill
• bringintotheinformation-processingsystem
 Development o f the Multistore Model
Term Definition

Knowledge One’sexistinginformationabouta
base topicorcontentarea
Usedtorefertothetotalamountof“space”availabletostore
information,sometimestohowlonginformationcanberetained
Capacity
inastorageunit,andsometimestohowquicklyinformationcan
beprocessed.
Ageneralmeasureoftheamount
Memory span ofinformationthatcanbeheldin
theshort-termstore.

Strategies
Goal-directedanddeliberatelyimplementedmental
operationsusedtofacilitatetaskperformance.
 Development of the Short-Term Store

• Agedifferencesininformation-processinghardwarehavebeenexaminedbyassessingmemoryspantoevaluate
capacityof the STS. Althoughsubstantial agedifferencesintheSTShavebeen found,manydevelopmental
differencesinmemorycanbeattributedtoincreasesinknowledgebaseandhowquicklychildrencanprocess
information.
 The Development of Strategies
• Researchondevelopmentalchangesininformation-processingsoftwarehavefocusedmainlyonstrategies
—goal-directedoperationsusedtoaidtaskperformance.
• Frequentfindingsincludeproductiondeficiencies,inwhichchildrenfailtoproduceastrategyspontaneously
butcandosowheninstructed,andutilizationdeficiencies, inwhichchildrenexperience littleornobenefit
whentheyuseanewstrategy.
• Children of all ages have been found to use multiple and variable strategies in solving problems, a
phenomenonthatisexplainedbyRobertSiegler’sadaptivestrategychoicemodel.
• Children’sunderstandingofwhatitmeanstothink increasesoverthepreschoolandearlyschool years.
Fewor nodevelopmental differencesare observed for implicit cognition, cognition that is performed
withoutconsciousawareness,incontrasttoexplicitcognition,orcognitionwithawareness.
 Production and Utilization Deficiencies

Term Definition

Afailuretospontaneouslygenerateanduseknown
Production deficiency
strategies
thatcouldimprovelearningandmemory.

Afailuretobenefitfromeffectivestrategiesthatonehas
spontaneouslyproduced;Occursintheearlyphasesof
Utilization deficiency
strategyacquisitionwhenexecutingthestrategyrequires
muchmentaleffort.
Robert Siegler’s Adaptive Strategy Choice Mode

Adaptive Strategy Choice Model

(Strategy Choice Model)
• atheoreticaldesignfoundedbyAmericanpsychologists
Robert S. Siegler and Christopher Shipley, which
postulates the existence of numerous methods of
problemsolving with regards to a youth's cognitive
supplyandportrayshowuseofsuchmethodsevolvesin
time.
 What Children Know About Thinking
Term Definition

Thoughtthatoccurswithout
Implicit cognition
awarenessthatoneisthinking.

Thinkingandthoughtprocessesof
Explicit cognition
whichweareconsciouslyaware.
 Fuzzy-Trace Theory: An Alternative Viewpoint

• Arecentalternativetothemultistoremodelof
informationprocessingis fuzzy-tracetheory,
whichclaimsthatweprocessinformationat
bothagist andaverbatimlevelandaccounts
nicelyforsomeagedifferencesinmemoryand
problemsolving.
 Development of Attention
• Withagetheattentionspansofchildrenandadolescentsincrease dramatically,
owing,inpart,toincreasingmyelinationofthecentralnervoussystem.
• Attentionalsobecomesmoreplanfulandmoreselectivewithage,aschildrenand
adolescentssteadilyimproveintheirabilitytoconcentrateontask- relevant
stimuliandtonotbedistractedbyothernoiseintheenvironment.
• Childrenalsodeveloptheabilitytoinhibitthoughtorattentiontoinformationinthe
environmentthatisclearlyirrelevanttothetaskathand.
 Development of Attention
Term Definition

Thecapacityforsustainingattentiontoaparticular
Attention span
stimulusoractivity.

Thecapacitytofocusontask-relevantaspectsof
Selective attention experiencewhileignoringirrelevantordistracting
information.

Theabilitytopreventourselvesfromexecutingsome
Inhibition
cognitiveorbehaviouralresponse.
 Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) describeschildrenwhofindit
difficult tosustain their attentionfor longor todevelopplanful attentional
strategies.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:
Information-Processing Perspectives

Development of
Memory
 Development of Memory
Term Definition

Event memory Long-termmemoryforevents.

Processesinvolvedasoneconsciouslyattemptstoretainor
Strategic memory
retrieveinformation.

Autobiographical Memoryforimportantexperiences
memory oreventsthathavehappenedtous.

Mnemonics Effortfultechniquesusedtoimprovememory,including
(memory strategies) rehearsal,organization,andelaboration.
 The Development of Event and
Autobiographical Memory
• Mostofusdisplayinfantileamnesia—aninabilitytorecallmuchaboutthefirstfew yearsoflife.
• Early event memory, specifically, autobiographical memory, is based on scripts, or schematic
organizations of recurring real-world events organized in terms of their causal and temporal
sequences.Evenveryyoungchildrenorganizetheir experiencesintermsofscripts,whichbecome
moredetailedwithage.
• Autobiographical memory improves dramatically during the preschool years. Parents play an
important role in the growth of autobiographical memories by discussing past events, providing
clues about what information is important to remember, and helping children to recall their
experiencesinrichpersonal narratives.
Development of Memory:
Retaining and Retrieving Information

• The effective use of memory strategies, or mnemonics,

increases with age. Frequently used memory strategies
includerehearsal,organization,and retrieval
• Memory strategies are usually assessed on either free-
recall or cued-recall tasks, the latter of which provide
specific cues, or prompts, to aid retrieval. The particular
memory strategies that one acquires are heavily
influenced by culture and the kinds of information that
childrenareexpectedtoremember.
• Metamemory (or knowledge of the workings of memory)
increaseswithage andcontributestodevelopmental and
individualdifferencesinstrategic memory.
Development of Memory:
Retaining and Retrieving Information

• Anotherreasonforthedramaticimprovementsinstrategicmemorybetweeninfancyandadolescence
isthatolderpersons knowmorethanyoungeronesdo,andthislargerknowledgebase improvesone’s
abilitytoaccessinformationandtodevisememory strategiesforuseinlearningandremembering.
 Development of Memory:
Retaining and Retrieving Information

The Development of
Memory Strategies
Rehearsal
-a strategy for remembering that involves
repeating the items one is trying to retain.

Organization
-a strategy for remembering that involves
grouping or classifying stimuli into meaningful
(or manageable) clusters that are easier to
retain.
Retrieval
-a class of strategies aimed at getting
information out of the long-term store.

Free recall
Retrieval Processes -a recollection that is not prompted by specific
cues or prompts.

Cued recall
-a recollection that is prompted by a cue
associated with the setting in which the
recalled event originally occurred.
 Development of Memory:
Retaining and Retrieving Information
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:
Information-Processing Perspectives

Development of Other
Cognitive Skills
 Analogical Reasoning
Relational primacy
Reasoning hypothesis
is a special type of problem solving proposes that analogical reasoning is
that requires that one make an available early in infancy.
inference.

Analogical reasoning
Presentation topics can range from
product reviews, human interest pieces,
and even lists.

Many factors affect children’s analogical reasoning; two important ones are metacognition, or a conscious
awarenessof thebasisonwhichoneis solvinga problem,andknowledgeof therelationsonwhichtheanalogyis
based.
The Development of Other Cognitive Skills
Term Definition

improvementsinperformanceonnovelproblemsasa
learning to learn resultofacquiringanewruleorstrategyfromtheearlier
solutionofsimilarproblems.

theprinciplespecifyingthatthelastnumberinacounting
cardinality
sequencespecifiesthenumberofitemsinaset.
 Arithmetic Skills

• Even infants are capable of processing and using quantitative information, and toddlers have
alreadyacquiredarudimentary understandingofordinalrelationships.
• Counting begins once children begin to talk, and preschoolers gradually construct such basic
mathematical understandings as the principle of cardinality. Early arithmetic strategies usually
involve counting out loud; but eventually, children performsimple arithmetic operations in their
heads,usingincreasinglysophisticated arithmeticstrategies.
• Yetchildrenofanyageactuallyuseavarietyofstrategiestosolve mathproblems,asdescribedby
Siegler’sadaptivestrategychoice model.
Arithmetic Skills

• Children with math disabilities show deficits in

proceduralskillsandretrievaloffactsfromlong-
term memory, and have shorter short-term
memorythan nondisabledchildren.
• There are sizable cultural variations in
mathematics performance and the use of
arithmeticstrategies.
• Unschooled children develop arithmetic
strategies that they apply quite skillfully to the
practicalproblemsthey encounter.
 Counting and Arithmetic Strategies
• CountingandArithmeticStrategiesCountingnormally beginsshortly afterchildrenbeginto
talk.However,early countingstrategiesareveryimprecise,oftenconsistingof nomorethan
utteringa fewnumber words(suchas“one, three, four, six”) whilepointingtoobjectsthat a
companion hascounted.
 Counting and Arithmetic Strategies
most children can count accurately,
establishing a one-to-one
A G E S 3-4 correspondence between number
words and the items they represent.

most children have acquired the

Ages 4-5 principle of cardinality— the knowledge
that the last word in a counting
sequence (for example, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5”)
represents the number of items in a set.

Thesedevelopmentsincountingare especially important because they

pave theway for theemergenceof simple arithmeticstrategies.
Evaluating the Information-Processing Perspective

• Despite its many strengths, the information- processing

perspective has been criticized for largely ignoring
neurological and sociocultural influences on cognitive
growth, for failing to provide a broad, integrative theory of
children’sintelligence,andfor underestimatingtherichness
anddiversityofhuman cognitiveactivities.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:
Information-Processing Perspectives

Thank you!