Information Processing Theories

Question 1

What are some general characteristics of information processing theories?

Answer 1

•Comparisons are drawn between information processing of computers and that of humans
–Computer’s ability to process information is limited by its
•Hardware (e.g., memory capacity, speed/efficiency of operations)
•Software (e.g., strategies, information available)
–Individuals’ thinking is limited by
•Memory capacity
•Speed/efficiency of thought processes
•Availability of relevant strategies and knowledge
•Domain-general learning mechanisms (no specialized learning mechanisms for certain domains)
•Continuous view of development (generally)

Question 2

What is a microgenetic design?

Answer 2

• Designed to answer questions about how learning occurs.
• Developmental design
• Applied to cognitive and motor development
• Tied to overlapping waves theory

Question 3

What are the three essential characteristics of a microgenetic design?

Answer 3

–Observations are made during a time period in which children’s competence in solving a particular type of problem is changing quickly (want to see the change as it occurs)
–A lot of observations are made in a relatively short time period
–Observations are analyzed intensively to try to understand underlying processes/mechanisms of change

Question 4

What are some other characteristics of microgenetic designs?

Answer 4

• Use these designs with any age group
• can be combined with a correlational study or used as an experimental study
• elicit the change by providing experiences that you think will cause the change (training)

Question 5

What do microgenetic studies typically involve?

Answer 5

–Relatively small numbers of participants (or single-subject designs)
–Trial-by-trial assessments of children’s strategies for solving a particular type of problem
–Behavioral observations of children’s strategy use (often supplemented with self-reports in children 5 years and older)

Question 6

What is the overlapping waves theory?

Answer 6

•Microgenetic studies of different phenomena consistently indicate that children’s thinking at a given age is highly variable
•For example:
–Different children use different strategies
–Individual children use different strategies on different problems within a single test session
–Individual children use different strategies to solve the same problem on two occasions close in time

Question 7

The overlapping waves theory states that…

Answer 7

–Children typically know and use varied strategies for solving a given problem at any one time
–With age and experience:
•Relative frequency of existing strategies changes
•New strategies are discovered
•Some older strategies are abandoned

Question 8

The OWT states that cognitive change can be analyzed along five dimensions. What are those five dimensions?

Answer 8

1. Source of change
2. Path of change
3. Rate of change
4. Breadth of change
5. Variability of change

Question 9

What does source of change refer to?

Answer 9

What are the causes of cognitive change (i.e., a change in performance on a particular type of problem)?

Question 10

What does path of change refer to?

Answer 10

What is the sequence of strategies that children use while gaining competence on a particular type of problem?

Question 11

What does rate of change refer to?

Answer 11

• How much time passes between the first time children use a new strategy and their consistent use of the strategy?
• How much experience with a new strategy is needed before children use the strategy consistently? (amount of experience needed between the first time children use the strategy and their consistent use of the strategy)

Question 12

What does breadth of change refer to?

Answer 12

How widely does the strategy generalize to other problems and contexts?

Question 13

What does variability of change refer to?

Answer 13

• How do children differ from each other with respect to source, path, breadth, and rate of change?
• How do individual children’s sets of strategies change over time? (choose strategies within the limits of their knowledge)

Question 14

What did Siegler’s study look at?

Answer 14

Examined effects of training on strategy use for number conservation problems (N=45; 54-73 mos., mean = 5.17 years)

Question 15

What were the three conditions in Siegler’s experiment?

Answer 15

• Feedback only (answer correct/incorrect)
• Feedback plus explain-own-reasoning (“How did you know that?” followed by feedback)
• Feedback plus explain-experimenter’s reasoning (Feedback followed by “How do you think I knew that?”)

Question 16

What were the six types of problems?

Answer 16

• Equal: Rows identical in length and density (density = the spaces between buttons)
• Length: One row longer and has more buttons; equal density
• Density: One row more dense and has more buttons ; equal length
• Conflict-length: One row longer, other row more dense; longer row has more buttons
• Conflict-density: One row longer, other row more dense; denser row has more buttons
• Conflict-equal: One row longer, other row more dense; equal numbers of buttons in each row

Question 17

What were the findings related to source of change?

Answer 17

–Combination of feedback and explain-experimenter’s-reasoning led to greater learning than explain-own-reasoning and feedback or feedback alone
–Subsequent analyses focused on the group of children in the feedback-explain experimenter’s reasoning condition

Question 18

What were the findings related to path of change?

Answer 18

–Children relied initially on relative length, then abandoned this strategy but did not adopt a consistent alternative, then usually adopted the type of transformation strategy

Question 19

What were the findings related to rate of change?

Answer 19

–Most children required multiple sessions to progress from initial use to consistent use of the type of transformation strategy

Question 20

What were the findings related to breadth of change?

Answer 20

–Relatively narrow (low generalizability)
•Even some of the best learners continued in the final session to offer relative length explanations (rather than type of transformation explanations) when the longer row also had more objects

Question 21

What were the findings related to variability of change?

Answer 21

–Substantial variability within and between children
•Within children: Only 2% of children relied on a single strategy throughout the study; 70% used three or more strategies
•Between children: Individual differences in learning could be predicted by two pretest measures (total number of strategies used, whether two strategies were ever used on the same problem)