Chapter 6:Cognitive Growth: Information Processing Approaches

Question 1

What is attention?

Answer 1

the ability to strategically choose and sort out stimuli in our environment

Question 2

What constitutes information processing? (HINT: 3)

Answer 2

1. encoding
2. storage
3. retrieval

Question 3

Automatization is…

Answer 3

the degree to which an activity needs attention

Question 4

The three-system approach:

Answer 4

1. information
2. sensory memory
3. short term memory
4. long-term memory

Question 5

Sensory memory:

Answer 5

-thought to be infinite
-duration is brief, like 1 sec.

Question 6

Working memory

Answer 6

-limited
-holds 7 chunks of info
-duration is longer (10-20 seconds)
-sensitive to distraction

Question 7

Long-term memory

Answer 7

-storage
-theoretically infinite
-theoretically lasts longer
-retrieved in the future

Question 8

What are two types of dual processing theories?

Answer 8

type 1:
-unconscious, less effort to process

type2:
-conscious, takes energy and time to process
-sequential processing

Question 9

Attention-getting

Answer 9

-literally gets your attention
-bottom up processing (aka stimuli shapes our perception)

Question 10

Attention-holding

Answer 10

-literally stimuli that holds your attention

-top-down processing (aka background knowledge and expectations are used to interpret what we see)

Question 11

Inattentional blindness

Answer 11

-limited consciousness
-multitasking does not allow us to pay attention to everything

Question 12

Ventral and Dorsal tract is responsible for what?

Answer 12

-the ventral tract is responsible for processing objects

-the dorsal tract is responsible for processing space and tell where objects are in space

Question 13

Prospective memory is

Answer 13

-also known as planning memory
-what we use to control and organize info
-fe: planning an action for the future

Question 14

Infantile amnesia is

Answer 14

not recalling information or events before 3 years old

Question 15

Can our memories be accurately retrieved?

Answer 15

-Not necessarily b/c we might not remember them in the same way they happened, or we can think that something happened when it did not.

Question 16

Why is getting sufficient sleep after learning a new skill important?

Answer 16

-speed and accuracy of memory improves during NREM sleep

Question 17

Explicit memory

Answer 17

-is conscious
-processed in the hippocampus and frontal lobes

Question 18

Episodic memory

Answer 18

-is memory that involves sensory experience of an event

Question 19

Autobiographical memory

Answer 19

-is memory about ones own life
-inaccurate before age 3
-preschoolers memory may not always be accurate
-adults may also not have accurate memory about their life

Question 20

Semantic memory

Answer 20

-has to do with facts and abstract info

Question 21

Implicit memory

Answer 21

-is unconscious
-processing in the cerebellum and basal ganglia
-Space/time
-motor/cognitive skills
-classical conditioning

Question 22

Operating efficiency hypothesis

Answer 22

processing speed and efficiency increases with age

Question 23

Metamemory

Answer 23

-understanding the processes underlying memory
-improves during middle childhood

Question 24

Keyword strategy

Answer 24

-pairing similar sounding words to recall them better

Question 25

Scripts

Answer 25

-memory representations of a series of events

Question 26

Mneumonics

Answer 26

-strategies for organizing material in ways that can helps us remember

Question 27

Code-Based approach

Answer 27

-reading and letters/sounds are combined to make words

Question 28

Whole-language approach

Answer 28

-learn to read through exposure and complete writing

Question 29

Memory reconsolidation

Answer 29

-memories and associated stimuli may be altered after being retrieved

Question 30

Misinformation effect

Answer 30

-information you learned after an event interferes with previous memory of what happened

Question 31

False memory

Answer 31

-distorted recollection of information or events
-thinks that never happened

Question 32

Critical thinking

Answer 32

thinking that makes us use cognitive skills and strategies increasing the ability to solve problems and make appropriate decisions

Question 33

A reading educator is in favor of teaching reading by presenting the basic skills that underlie reading. Which instructional strategy is this teacher a proponent of?

Answer 33

Code-based approach

Question 34

Children’s memories are often organized in general representations of a sequence or series of events in the order in which they occur. What is this organizing tactic called?

Answer 34

scripts

Question 35

Larry was daydreaming the day his first grade teacher presented the math lesson that 5 + 5 = 10. Later, Larry was not able to recall this information, most likely because of which disruption?

Answer 35

encoding

Question 36

Which part of the cognitive architecture refers to the initial, momentary storage of information that lasts only an instant?

Answer 36

sensory memory

Question 37

Statistically, which person’s memory is considered to be the most vulnerable to suggestion, and therefore perhaps the least reliable?

Answer 37

pre-school aged children

Question 38

Infantile amnesia is defined as the lack of memory for experience that occurred prior to what age?

Answer 38

before 3 years

Question 39

central executive memory

Answer 39

the prefrontal cortex area that controls short term memory, processes material, attention, and helps suggest strategies.

Question 40

rehearsal

Answer 40

the repetition of information that enters short term memory

Question 41

memory span

Answer 41

the capacity of memory

Question 42

retrieval cues

Answer 42

the process of locating information that you’ve stored in your memory–using stimuli to recall info.

Question 43

Declarative memory

Answer 43

remembering about things, factual memory (names, dates, facts)

Question 44

Procedural memory

Answer 44

remembering how to do things, skills memory (habits)

Question 45

Comparing Information
Processing Approaches
to Alternative Theories
of Cognitive
Development:

Answer 45

information processing approaches are quantitative in nature,

rather than qualitative like Piaget’s suggested

Question 46

When do we forget?

Answer 46

forgetting can occur at any stage