Chapter 7: Cognitive development: An information processing perspective

Question 1

How does information-processing theory differ from Piaget’s or Vygotsky’s theory?

Answer 1

Unlike Piaget or Vygotsky’s theories, information processing is not a unified theory of cognitive development. It is an approach followed by researchers how thoroughly study specific aspects of cognition in order to uncover mechanisms of change (how children and adults operate on information, detecting, transforming, storing, accessing, and modifying it).

Question 2

How do most information-processing theorists view the mind?

Answer 2

A complex symbol-manipulating system through which information from the environment flows.

Question 3

First, information is _______ – taken in by the system and retained in symbolic form. Then, a variety of internal processes _______ on it, recoding it, or revising its symbolic structures into a more effective representation, and then ________ it, or interpreting its meaning by comparing and combining it with other information in the system. When these cognitive operations are complete, individuals use the information to make sense of their experiences and to solve problems.

Answer 3

encoded, operate, decoding

Question 4

What is the name of the model of information processing that most researchers adopt?

Answer 4

The store model

Question 5

According to the store model, we store information in three parts of the mental system for processing. What are these three parts called?

Answer 5

1. Sensory register
2. Short-term memory store
3. Long-term memory store

Question 6

What determines whether information is transferred from the sensory register to the short-term memory store?

Answer 6

Attending to information in the sensory register will determine whether such information is transferred to the next step of the information-processing system.

Question 7

What is verbatim digit span?

Answer 7

The longest sequence of items, e.g. a list of randomly ordered numbers, a person can repeat back in exact order.

Question 8

What is the average verbatim digit span among adults?

Answer 8

About 7 items.

Question 9

What does working memory refer to?

Answer 9

The number of items that can be briefly held in mind while also engaging in some effort to monitor or manipulate those items.

Question 10

True/False:

Working-memory span is roughly the same as short-term memory span.

Answer 10

False. Working-memory span is typically about two items fewer than short-term memory span.

Question 11

Children’s performance on working memory tasks is a good predictor of their capacity to _____.

Answer 11

learn

Question 12

What is the function of the central executive?

Answer 12

To manage the cognitive system’s activities, the central executive directs the flow of information, implementing basic procedures and engaging in more sophisticated activities that enable complex, flexible thinking.

Question 13

True/False:

Long term memory is considered an unlimited and permanent store.

Answer 13

True.

Question 14

When information needs to be recalled from long term memory, what does the ease and effectiveness of recall depend on?

Answer 14

How well the information was initially encoded and stored.

Question 15

How is encoding enhanced?

Answer 15

Through attention to, rehearsal and meaningfulness of the information.

Question 16

What does the store model suggest when it is applied to development?

Answer 16

The store model suggests that several aspects of the cognitive system improve with age.

Question 17

What does working-memory capacity predict?

Answer 17

Intelligence test scores and academic achievement in diverse subjects in middle childhood and adolescence.

Question 18

Developmental increases in working-memory capacity in part reflect gains in __________ _____.

Answer 18

processing speed

Question 19

With age, children process information more efficiently: research shows that processing time on tasks decrease with age, and this is fairly rapid until age 12 when the rate of decrease slows. Cross-culturally, a similar trend has been noted. Why?

Answer 19

This may be due to myelination or synaptic pruning in the brain.

Question 20

Robbie Case’s neo-Piagetian theory accepts Piaget’s stages but attributes changes within each stage, and movement from one stage to the next, to what?

Answer 20

Increases in the efficiency with which children use their limited working-memory capacity.

Question 21

According to Case’s neo-Piagetian theory, what three factors contribute to cognitive change?

Answer 21

1. Brain development
2. Practice with schemes and automisation
3. Formation of central conceptual structures

Question 22

What metaphor does Robert Siegler’s model of strategy choice use to help us understand cognitive change?

Answer 22

natural selection

Question 23

According to Siegler’s model of strategy choice, children generate a variety of strategies, testing the usefulness of each. With experience, some strategies are ________; they become more frequent and ‘_______’; others become less frequent and ‘___ ___.

Answer 23

selected, survive, die off

Question 24

Siegler noted that while trying different strategies, children observe which work best, which work less well, and which are ineffective. Gradually, they select strategies on the basis of which two adaptive criteria?

Answer 24

1. Accuracy: extent to which the strategy produces a correct result
2. Speed: how fast the strategy works

Question 25

Sometimes, children do not immediately take advantage of new, more adaptive strategies, even when taught these by an adult. Why is this?

Answer 25

Using a new strategy taxes working memory, and children may resist giving up a well-established, nearly automatic procedure for a new one because gains in speed of thinking are small at first.

Question 26

What are speech-gesture mismatches?

Answer 26

Speech-gesture mismatches occur when children produce gestures indicating they know more than they can articulate.

Question 27

Sustained attention increases sharply between ages 2 and 3 ½ years old. What factors are jointly responsible for this gain in sustained attention?

Answer 27

Rapid growth of the prefrontal cortex, the capacity to generate increasingly complex play goals, and adult scaffolding of attention.

Question 28

Children acquire selective, adaptable attention through gains in which two components of executive function?

Answer 28

1. Inhibition

2. Attentional strategies

Question 29

What is inhibition?

Answer 29

The ability to control internal and external distracting stimuli.

Question 30

How does inhibition support information-processing skills?

Answer 30

By controlling irrelevant stimuli, inhibition frees working-memory resources for the task at hand, and, therefore, supports many information-processing skills.

Question 31

Attention strategies develop and are refined through a four stage process. What are these stages called?

Answer 31

1. Production deficiency
2. Control deficiency
3. Utilisation deficiency
4. Effective strategy use

Question 32

What underlies the symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which involves inattention, impulsivity, and excessive motor activity resulting in academic and social problems?

Answer 32

Executive-function difficulties

Question 33

What are the three strategies used for storing information?

Answer 33

1. Rehearsal
2. Organisation
3. Elaboration

Question 34

Define rehearsal

Answer 34

Repeating the information to hold the information in working memory

Question 35

Define organisation (as related to storing information)

Answer 35

Grouping related items

Question 36

Define elaboration.

Answer 36

Creating a relationship, or shared meaning, between two of more pieces of information that do not belong in the same category

Question 37

When do children start using organisation?

Answer 37

around age 8

Question 38

Rehearsal and organisation require extra space in working memory and time and effort to perfect. Consequently, when children are trying to learn how to use rehearsal and organisation they often show _______ deficiencies (e.g. organising inconsistently) and ___________ deficiencies (i.e. showing no gain from the organising strategy).

Answer 38

control, utilisation

Question 39

When do children start using elaboration?

Answer 39

towards the end of middle childhood

Question 40

What are the three ways that retrieval of information occurs?

Answer 40

1. Recognition
2. Recall
3. Reconstruction

Question 41

True/False:

Recall is the simplest form of retrieval.

Answer 41

False. Recognition (noticing that a stimulus is identical or similar to one previously experienced) is the simplest form of retrieval, since the material to be remembered is fully present during testing to serve as its own retrieval cue.

Question 42

When does recall appear in children?

Answer 42

in the second half of the first year

Question 43

Define recall

Answer 43

Generating a mental representation of an absent stimulus

Question 44

Define semantic memory

Answer 44

Vast, taxonomically organised and hierarchically structured general knowledge system, consisting of concepts, language meanings, facts, and rules (such as memory strategies and arithmetic procedures).

Question 45

According to Brainerd and Reyna’s fuzzy-trace theory, when we first encode information, we reconstruct it automatically, creating a vague, fuzzy version called a ____.

Answer 45

gist

Question 46

A gist preserves _________ _______ without details and is especially useful for _________

Answer 46

essential meaning, reasoning

Question 47

Define episodic memory

Answer 47

Recollections of personally experienced events that occurred at a specific time and place.

Question 48

What must be must be sufficiently developed to support episodic memory?

Answer 48

A child’s sense of self

Question 49

Define scripts

Answer 49

General descriptions of what occurs and when it occurs in a particular situation

Question 50

Define autobiographical memory

Answer 50

Representations of one-time events that are long-lasting because they are imbued with personal meaning

Question 51

The capacity for autobiographical memory develops after the age of two and requires which two elements?

Answer 51

1. A clear self-image that acts a reference point, so that children can say “that happened to me”
2. Children must be able to organise their memories into a time oriented life story.

Question 52

What are the two explanations for infantile amnesia?

Answer 52

1. Infantile amnesia occurs because of the limited cognitive capacity of infants, which prevents them from being able to store memories effectively in long-term memory; and/or,
2. Prior to age 3, infants do store memories but they do so nonverbally, making them harder to retrieve later on when language becomes an important mechanism for memory encoding and retrieval.

Question 53

Define metacognition

Answer 53

Awareness and understanding of various aspects of thought

Question 54

What does theory of mind refer to?

Answer 54

A coherent understanding of people as mental beings, which they revise as they encounter new evidence

Question 55

What is cognitive self-regulation?

Answer 55

The process of continually monitoring and controlling progress toward a goal – planning, checking outcomes, and redirecting unsuccessful efforts

Question 56

What are children’s active efforts to construct literacy knowledge through informal experiences called?

Answer 56

emergent literacy

Question 57

Define phonological awareness

Answer 57

The ability to reflect on and manipulate the sound structure of spoken language

Question 58

What is a strong predictor of emergent literacy and, later, reading and spelling progress?

Answer 58

Phonological awareness

Question 59

Scientific reasoning relies on which three capacities to develop?

Answer 59

1. Working memory, specifically capacity in working memory to examine evidence in light of theory and vice-versa
2. Increased exposure to complex problems, to practice reasoning
3. Metacognition, which enables self-evaluation of objectiveness.