Information-Processing Theory Flashcards
Describe the Sensory Register:
the first memory store. It is called the sensory register because the information it stores is thought to be encoded in the same form in which it is originally perceived—that is, as raw sensory data.
Describe Recognition:
The process of recognition involves noting key features of a stimulus and relating them to already-stored information.
Describe Attention:
We continually focus on one thing at the expense of something else. This selective focusing on a portion of the information currently stored in the sensory register is what we call attention.
Describe Short Term Memory/ Working Memory:
the second memory store. Short-term memory can hold anywhere from five to nine (seven is the average) unrelated bits of information for approximately 20 seconds. Psychologists use the term working memory to refer to the aspect of STM that actively processes information.
Describe Rehearsal and its different types:
Maintenance Rehearsal: Maintenance rehearsal (also called rote rehearsal or repetition) has a mechanical quality. Its only purpose is to use mental and verbal repetition to hold information in short-term memory for some immediate purpose. Although this is a useful and often-used capability (as in the telephone example), it has no effect on long-term memory storage.
Elaborative Rehearsal: consciously relates new information to knowledge already stored in long-term memory. Elaboration occurs when we use information stored in long-term memory to add details to new information, clarify the meaning of a new idea, make inferences, construct visual images, and create analogies. For example, if you wanted to learn the lines for a part in a play, you might try to relate the dialogue and behavior of your character to similar personal experiences you remember. As you strive to memorize the lines and actions, your mental “elaborations” will help you store your part in long-term memory so that you can retrieve it later.
Describe Organization:
We can simplify the task by organizing multiple pieces of information into a few “clumps,” or “chunks,” of information, particularly when each part of a chunk helps us remember other parts
Describe Meaningfulness:
occurs when a learner encounters clear, logically organized material and consciously tries to relate the new material to ideas and experiences stored in long-term memory. To understand learning theory principles, for example, you might imagine yourself using them to teach a lesson to a group of students. Or you might modify a previously constructed flowchart on the basis of new information. The basic idea behind meaningful learning is that the learner actively attempts to associate new ideas to existing ones
Describe Visual Encoding
Research has consistently shown that directing students to generate visual images as they read lists of words or sentences, several paragraphs of text, or lengthy text passages produces higher levels of comprehension and recall as compared with students who are not so instructed.
Dual code theory: concrete material (such as pictures of familiar objects) and concrete words (such as horse, bottle, water) are remembered better than abstract words (such as deduction, justice, theory) because the former can be encoded in two ways—as images and as verbal labels—whereas abstract words are encoded only verbally.
Describe Long Term Memory:
On the basis of neurological, experimental, and clinical evidence, most cognitive psychologists think that the storage capacity of LTM is virtually unlimited and that it contains a permanent record of everything an individual has learned
Explain Inadequate Consolidation as a factor to why we forget and strategies that can help over come that:
Sometimes forgetting occurs because the material wasn’t adequately learned in the first place. When learning new material, many students will try to learn as much of it as possible in as little time as possible. Students call this “cramming.” Psychologists call it massed practice.
Strategy: A better option is to engage in distributed practice: study and then restudy smaller chunks of material at regular intervals. same idea as interleaving study
Explain Non-meaningful learning as a factor to why we forget and strategies that can help over come that:
the information is so different from anything we already know that we can’t connect it to existing knowledge schemes in a meaningful way. Recall of this information is marked by omissions and distortions.
Strategy: find applications in ones own life that make what is being taught meaningful
Explain Few opportunities for retrieval (use it or lose it) as a factor to why we forget and strategies that can help over come that:
you don’t take enough tests as you are learning new material
Strategy: more low stakes quizzing
Explain Interference from other material as a factor to why we forget and strategies that can help over come that:
To be a student means having to cope with a constant stream of learning material. Inevitably, we encounter ideas that are similar to those we learned earlier but that call for different responses. In such cases, interference from material learned earlier or later, whether it was learned in school or out, can make it difficult to come up with the correct response
Strategy: engage in consolidation of material learned with repetition to strengthen what is actually correct vs. what is not but seems to fit the scheme
Explain Lack of Retrieval Cues as a factor to why we forget and strategies that can help over come that:
A retrieval cue can be any information, such as a word, phrase, image, sound, etc., that is associated with the learned material. Lack of retrieval cues like the above examples causes forgetting.
Strategy:Let’s say that as you read this chapter you also take note of the headings and subheadings and create analogies (like thinking of short-term memory as a funnel that is seven chunks wide). If that additional information is present when you want to recall the chapter’s content, either because it’s given to you or you can generate it yourself, you’re more likely to recall the target information. This is known as the encoding specificity principle : retrieval is more likely to be successful when material that was part of the original encoding is present at the time of recall.
Define and explain metacognition:
what we know about how we think, and how we guide and control our cognitive processes
