Chapter 7: Cognitive Change - Information Processing Approach

Question 1

What was Piaget’s approach to cognitive development?

Answer 1

believed that cognitive change occurs as individuals develop over time

Question 2

What was Vygotsky’s approach to cognitive development?

Answer 2

believed that individuals change as individuals interact with people and their environment

Question 3

What is the information processing approach?

Answer 3

suggests that cognitive change occurs when new information becomes available and is processed in the mind

Question 4

What is the information processing system?

Answer 4

our minds are composed of three different places where information exists: sensory memory, working memory, long-term memory

Question 5

Sensory Memory

What is the sensory memory?

Answer 5

holds incoming sensory information in its original form

Question 6

Sensory Memory

What is attention?

Answer 6

awareness of information

Question 7

Working Memory (Short-term)

Answer 7

holds and processes information that is being “worked on”:

• manipulated
• encoded (transferring into long-term memory)
• retrieved (recalling it from long-term memory)

all cognition takes place in the working memory, very active

Question 8

Working Memory (Short-term)

What is the central executive?

Answer 8

control processor that directs the flow of information and regulates cognitive activities such as attention, action, and problem-solving

• determines what is important to combine new and previously stored information (“directing traffic”)—tells information where to go

Question 9

Working Memory (Short-term)

What is the executive function?

Answer 9

cognitive process of understanding information, making decisions, and solving problems

• carries out working memory (makes sense of the information): involved in goal setting, inhibiting impulses

Question 10

Information Processing in Infancy

Describe attention.

Answer 10

direct one’s awareness at a particular object (shown by 10 weeks)

• more attentive to dynamic stimuli (stimuli that changes over time) rather than static stimuli (stimuli that does not change over time)
• important to present different things to infants because they will pay more attention to things that are different

Question 11

Information Processing in Infancy

Describe memory.

Answer 11

• newborn babies can recall visual and auditory stimuli
• habituation
• motor activity memory
• emotional engagement (the more engaged an infant is in something, the more it enhances their memory
  infants are more likely to remember things (positive or negative) associated with their emotions)

Question 12

Information Processing in Infancy

What is habituation?

Answer 12

reduction in “looking” time to a stimulus that is familiar and doesn’t change

• infant gets bored looking at the same thing, so they limit the amount of time they look at something that they are already familiar with

Question 13

Information Processing in Infancy

Describe thinking. What is categorization?

Answer 13

• grouping different stimuli together (as young as 4 months)
• know that certain things are really similar (ie. foods, animals, toys)
• think about assimilation and accommodation (Piaget)

Question 14

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

Describe cognition.

Answer 14

children experience steady increases in central executive function and working memory throughout childhood

Question 15

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

What is selective attention?

Answer 15

ability to systematically focus on relevant information and ignore distractors

• preschoolers struggle with this (easily distracted)
• around 6 years old (starting school), they are better able to employ selective attention

Question 16

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

What are memory strategies?

Answer 16

cognitive activities that make us more likely to remember

across childhood, children learn more strategies and get better at selecting them, modifying them to suit the task at hand, and using them more effectively

Question 17

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

Memory Strategies: What is rehearsal?

Answer 17

systematically repeating information in order to retain it in working memory

Question 18

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

Memory Strategies: What is organization?

Answer 18

categorizing items together to remember (putting them in groupings, themes, types)

Question 19

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

Memory Strategies: What is elaboration?

Answer 19

creating an imagined scene or story to link the material to be remembered

Question 20

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

Describe knowledge.

Answer 20

knowledge structures become more elaborate and organized across childhood, as children learn more about specific topics

• information becomes more familiar and meaningful, and easier to store, recall, and manipulate
• acquire increasing amounts of information through formal education, which they naturally organize into meaningful ways
• formal education gives opportunities to practice and refine memory strategies

Question 21

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

Describe cultural influences.

Answer 21

developing countries: memory strategies are different (some may not be used)

developed countries: memory strategies are more likely to be used

Question 22

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

Long-term Memory: What is memory for scripts?

Answer 22

scripts are routines (that can create long-term memories)

Question 23

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

Long-term Memory: What is autobiographical memory?

Answer 23

memory of personally meaningful events that took place at a specific time and place in one’s past

• develops steadily from preschool to adolescence
• language development helps with autobiography memory
• infantile amnesia

Question 24

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

Long-term Memory: What is infantile amnesia?

Answer 24

lack of memories prior to age 3

Question 25

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

Long-term Memory: What is metacognition?

Answer 25

thinking about thinking

• understanding how the mind works, and figuring the best ways to manipulate what is in our own minds, and what’s best for us
• what we have stored in our memory is understanding what memories we have, then picking strategies to retrieve memory information and enhance it

Question 26

Information Processing in Childhood (Age 2-12)

Long-term Memory: What is metamemory?

Answer 26

understanding of one’s memory and ability to use strategies to enhance it

Question 27

Information Processing in Adolescence

Describe cognition.

Answer 27

attention, working memory, and executive function skills increase

Question 28

Information Processing in Adolescence

How does attention change?

Answer 28

greater control, which allows them to deploy it selectively

Question 29

Information Processing in Adolescence

How does working memory and executive function change?

Answer 29

can better hold existing material in working memory, while also processing and taking in new material (executive function)

Question 30

Information Processing in Adolescence

What is response inhibition?

Answer 30

impulse control: not responding or activating cognitive operations in response to a stimuli
enables teenagers to select appropriate responses in a given situation

• as brain develops more, and the skills of their mind and information processing system increase, they are better able to learn things
  ie. taking turns, not saying something hurtful even though they are thinking it, not speaking out of turn

Question 31

Information Processing in Adolescence

How does metacognition change?

Answer 31

more planful about their cognitive system

• better able to understand how they learn and how they remember
• better able to pick strategies that enhance their cognitive skills

Question 32

Information Processing in Adolescence

Describe the link between brain development and adolescent cognition .

Answer 32

the more the brain develops, the better their thinking processes, and their thinking skills become

Question 33

Information Processing in Adolescence

What is the prefrontal cortex’s function?

Answer 33

helps with thinking, decision-making, having better judgement

Question 34

Information Processing in Adolescence

What is the cerebellum’s function?

Answer 34

increases connections between left and right hemisphere
- if you improve ability to make decisions and connections between left and right hemispheres, you will be a better thinker

Question 35

Information Processing in Adolescence

How do the prefrontal cortex and cerebellum work together?

Answer 35

underlie improvements in information processing and executive function

Question 36

Information Processing in Adolescence

Describe decision-making.

Answer 36

capable of rational decision making than adults, except in risk-taking behaviour

Question 37

Information Processing in Adolescence

Describe adolescents and risk-taking behaviours.

Answer 37

• adolescents often don’t think about the practicalities associated with each action when it comes to risk-taking behaviours
• adolescence are more responsive to positive feedback, less responsive to negative feedback (ignores advice not to do something)
• place more importance of benefits of risk-taking behaviour, than estimating the potential cost or risk

Question 38

Information Processing in Adolescence

What is the limbic system?

Answer 38

linked to emotional arousal

Question 39

Information Processing in Adolescence

Describe the lag time of development between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system.

Answer 39

interferes with decision-making ability

• limbic system is upfront, prefrontal cortex is sitting in the background
• neurological research supports the findings: adolescents show heightened activity in brain systems that support reward processing, and reduced activity in areas responsible for inhibitory control (opposite for adults)