CHapter 7: Information Processing & Motor Control Flashcards
Information processing approach based on:
Computer science (human processing similar to)
Communications theory (information coding and channel
capacity)
Linguistics (language)
everything that we do is equated to the computer.
Describe the basic information-processing model.
Information is encoded, stored, transformed, retrieved and acted upon
Sensory input (stimuli) –> processing (receptiors, CNS data processing) —> Output (motor response)
What is the core of information-processing models and the prerequisite to the perception of information?
Attention
Limited attention is…
when you attend to only one thing at a time
Serial attention:
attend to one thing, and then another
difficult to combine certain activities
- ex: text and drive
What are the concepts that are associated with attention & motor behavior?
Alertness and preparation
Individual’s limited capacity to process information
Selective attention (ability to select and attend to meaningful info)
What is alertness?
preparation of the system
What is reaction time (RT)
interval of time between onset of stimulus and initiation of response
RT improves with age into 20s, stable until 60s
Divided attention
Concentrating on more than one activity at the same time
Limited capacity to handle information from environment
Capacity must be divided so individual can execute specific
movement activity
Interference occurs if another activity requires resources
Differences in attending to tasks due to automation and
attention deployment skills
Selective Attention
Ability to attend to relevant information
“Cocktail party phenomenon”
Describe the development of selective attention.
Infants 4 months have selective attention
Steadily improves until early adolescence
Attributed to experience and refinement of operational
functions
Memory
Retention and subsequent retrieval of information
Recognition
Noticing whether a stimulus is identical or similar to one
previously experienced
Recall
More advanced form of memory; involves remembering a
stimulus that is not present
In memory, developmental differences due primarily to processing strategies
rather than structural (capacity) increases T/F
T
Memory Structures:
Short-term (working memory)
Limited capacity, storage duration not more than 30
seconds.
Can recall only about 5–9 items (plus or minus two)
items.
Chunking (grouping items to make larger collections) and
rehearsal help with memory.
Memory span technique measures capacity
Memory Structures:
Long-term memory
Seemingly unlimited capacity
Long-term, permanent
Unlimited duration (hours, days, years)
Describe the Memory Systems and Their
Relationship to Motor Response
check slide 14
Memory Abilities:
What are the early processing abilities?
Recognition memory (shortly after birth)
Habituation—reaction to stimulus declines
Dishabituation—renewed
esponsiveness to a new,stimulus
Observed in newborns, 5–12 month olds well developed
Memory Abilities:
What is cued recall/contextual learning?
Long-term memory shown in infants as young as 3 and 6
months of age
Infant kicking experiments; evidence for contextual
learning
Perfect retention 3–4 days after training
At 6 months, can remember lining of crib
Memory Abilities:
Short-term Memory Abilities
Improves up to early adolescence
Memory span increases from about two digits in 2- and 3-
year-olds to 71/2 digits in adults
Coding, searching and recalling strategies difficult for
children
Location easier to recall than distance
Memory Abilities:
Describe Long-term Memory Abilities
By age 2, children have long-term memory (NOT TRUE)
Rehearsal/practicing memory strategy employed and efficient by about age 10, evident at age 5.
By age 10 or 11, better able to retrieve information in
memory, but not as easily as adults.
Little long-term memory loss with continuous motor skills
(such as riding a bike)
Memory more easily lost with discrete motor tasks such
as kicking or throwing
adult do better
Memory Abilities:
Knowledge
Chess player study: children had better recall than adults
Knowledge of game and chunking strategy key
not reliable study because children were part of the chess club while the adults hadn’t seen it.
Memory Abilities
Metamemory
Knowledge or intuition that people have about memory
and themselves as memorizers
Improves with age; adult-like by 10 years
meta memory DOES NOT grow at all.
Give a summary of memory.
Habituation (newborn)
Cued recall (3 months)
Contextual learning (6 months)
Short-term memory emerges at 6 months (not true, it is earlier), evident by 2 years,
adult-like at 13
Long-term memory evident by 2 years, adult-like by 10 or
11
Encoding by 8 years
Metamemory by 10
Processing speed…
The rate of speed at which information is processed
Performance difference between children and adult
Successful Motor Performance
Perceptual recognition (attention)
Speed of memory functions
Neuromuscular response time
______________ is basic measure of processing speed
(bits per second)
Reaction Time (RT)
Reaction Time (RT) is basic measure of processing speed
(bits per second)
Interval of time between onset of stimulus and initiation of
motor response
Simple reaction time: when individual is asked to respond
only to one stimulus
Choice reaction time: when individual is asked to respond to
more complex information
higher reaction time = slower
lower reaction time = faster
Hick’s Law
Reaction time increases as information load (complexity)
increases
(slower with complex tasks)
Fitt’s Law
Speed-accuracy trade-off
When performers attempt to do something more quickly,
they typically do it less accurately
