Developmental - Lecture 6 - Information processing (week 6)

Question 1

1. Describe the information processing (IP) approach to cognitive development

Answer 1

Cognitive development is due to changes in the child’s ability to process information.
The approach uses a computer analogy to explain human information processing.
Three basic components determine our ability to process information:
Sensory register, Short-term memory, Long-term memory

The IP approach envisages cognitive development as a continuous process. (No discontinuous, stage-like development).
Continuous development:
- Small, but measurable changes are continuously observed in children’s IP-mechanisms.

Question 2

2. Summarise the four IP mechamisms / 3. Describe the development of strategies and their effects on cognitive processing.

Answer 2

1. Basic processes:
Encoding new info
Associating knowledge (cf. Schemas)
Recognition & recall
Generalising knowledge 

Basic processes are facilitated by increases in processing speed in older children/adolescents.
Response times on tasks requiring simple cognitive judgements decrease throughout childhood.
Basic processes are facilitated by increases in processing capacity in older children/adolescents.
Digit span (a measure of short-term/working memory capacity) increases with age (cf. Computer analogy  improved RAM).

2. Strategies
   Children acquire a range of strategies to facilitate cognitive processes (e.g. memory).

E.g. Try to remember the following number: 18954679,
Using strategies such as: (We will be looking at two useful strategies that improve children’s (and adults’) memory:)
Verbal rehearsal and Chunking

Verbal rehearsal - At what age do children use verbal rehearsal?
Part 1 (Flavell et al, 1966)
Method - 5, 7 & 10 year olds asked to point to a series of pictures in same order as experimenter.
Experimenter points to 2-5 pictures.
Children recall pictures immediately or after 15 secs in a re-arranged array.
Children’s lip-movements and overt speech were recorded.
Results - Substantial increase in spontaneous speech production from ages 5 – 10, accompanied by higher picture recall.

Age Rehearsers mean recall
(years) (%) (count)

5 10 1.30
7 60 2.55
10 85 3.60

What effect does systematic verbal rehearsal have on children’s memory?
Part 2 (Flavell et al, 1966)
Method
Same as before, BUT:
Children were instructed to name the pictures at encoding and recall (i.e. verbal rehearsal was induced).
Results (after using instructed verbal rehearsal) - All age groups showed higher picture recall after systematically using verbal rehearsal.

Age mean recall
(years) (count)

5 2.20
7 3.50
10 3.95

Chunking - Chunking is a way of organising knowledge by grouping it into smaller units.
E.g., chunking applied to our earlier number makes it much easier to remember (at least for today).
E.g. 14579032 split into 1457 and 9032
Are children able to use chunking to improve their memory? (Mathy et al., 2016)
Method

6 – 10 year olds asked to memorise colour sequences.
Two conditions to apply chunking: easy and difficult.
Immediate recall-span of the sequences was tested.

Results: Both, young and older children benefitted from chunking.
Chunking and memory span develop simultaneously with age.
Chunking is a useful strategy to improve immediate memory span.

3. Content knowledge - As children develop, their general knowledge increases.
   8 – 9 year olds show superior memory relative to young adults for new information of their interest (e.g. cartoons, games, etc.) (Lindberg et al., 1980)
   “The rich get richer”: Greater knowledge facilitates children’s basic processes, such as encoding and associating new info with prior knowledge (accommodating and increasing our schemas). (Shing & Brod, 2016)
4. Metacognition - Prefix meta = beyond; higher
   meta-cognition = thinking about thinking.
   An understanding, knowledge and executive control of our own cognitive capacity.
   As children develop, they become more aware of their own cognitive abilities and limitations.
   7 year olds are much worse than 11 year olds at monitoring their understanding of instructions (Markman, 1979).
   High, but not low, metacognitive skills in 11 year olds are related to high achievements at school and better study habits (Ozsoy et al., 2009).

Question 3

4. Compare/contrast the IP approach to the approaches of Piaget/Vygotsky.

Answer 3

Keep processing demands within the child’s processing capabilities.
Make sure information is relevant and meaningful, as it enhances learning (e.g. Lindberg, 1980).
Help children cope with their limited processing capacity by adopting suitable strategies.

Promote and develop children’s metacognitive abilities, including how to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning.

COMPARE TO PIAGET AND VYGOTSKY
Strengths:
- Informs directly of the specific information processing mechanisms required to solve cognitive processes (unlike Piaget & Vygotsky).

• Numerous experimental studies, using rigorous methods and systematic hypothesis testing, have generated extensive insights into how cognitive processing changes with age.
• Findings from IP research have helped develop new teaching techniques (e.g., schools encourage children to reflect on their own mental processing to develop metacognitive awareness).
  
  • There are opportunities for combining its findings with studies of psychophysiological changes that occur with age (e.g., exploring changes in the brain that might parallel increased memory capacity with age).

Weaknesses:
- Findings from IP research are sometimes disparate and do not seem to offer a coherent, rounded theory of cognitive development in the same way as Piaget did (e.g. no discrete stages).

- Use of the computer analogy means that IP researchers focus mainly on the logical aspects of cognitive processing and less on the emotional, creative and social aspects that affect thinking.