origins of memory

Question 1

infant memory

Answer 1

• Infants:
• Event form past can be remembered
• Over time event an be forgotten
• With a cue (reminder) things forgotten can be remembered

Question 2

improvements in memory

Answer 2

• Related to growth in brain in diff areas
• Amygdala and hippocampus related to initial storage of info, develops by 6mo
  o Can store for a short period of time
• Frontal cortex develops later and is related to retrieval of stored memories
  o More into 2nd year
• Some has to do with other cog abilities and also strategies

Question 3

strategies for remembering

Answer 3

• Memory strategies: activities that improve remembering
• Pre school kids look at or touch things they are told to remember
  o Lets kids know that they need to do something to try to remember
• Older kids and adolescents use
  o Rehearsal – repeating over and over
  o Organization, put related info together
  o Elaboration – embellish info more likely to remember
  o Chunking - organizes related info into 1 group

Question 4

metacognition

Answer 4

selecting and monitoring cog strategies
o Improves with age
o Strategies only useful if used, and used effectively
o Thinking about our thinking

Question 5

metamemory

Answer 5

kids informal understanding of memory

o Develops parallel with metacognitive knowledge

Question 6

metacognitive knowledge

Answer 6

• Determine goal
• Select strategy
• Use strategy
• Monitor strategy
• Reuse if effective but if its ineffective start process again
• Cog self regulation = ability to monitor strategy and evaluate
  o Characteristics of successful students

Question 7

knowledge and memory

Answer 7

• Knowledge helps to organize memory
• Links between different pieces of info → more knowledge means more connections
• Younger kids have fewer entries and weaker links

Question 8

scripts

Answer 8

• Memory structures that describe sequence in which events occur
• Although knowledge helps organize, can distort recall
• Memory of experience distorted to match script

Question 9

fuzzy trace theory

Answer 9

trace theory
- Knowledge helps to organize mem but can distort recall
- Fuzzy trace theory
o Experiences can be stored in memory exactly (vertabim) or in terms of their basic memory (gist)
- Younger kids more likely to remember verbatim, don’t have knowledge to form gist

Question 10

autobiographical memory

Answer 10

• Memory of one’s own life
• Interactions with others are important
  o Parents often cue kids about what is going on in lives, helps to form am
• Infantile amnesia = forgetting of early life events
  o Most don’t remember anything before age 3-4
  o A lot of memory comes form language and we don’t have as much at that point
  o Don’t have much of a sense of self so its less likely to remember things about yourself

Question 11

stereotype suggestion contitions of sam stone study

Answer 11

• Ask 4 neutral interviews
• teacher tells kids that same is nice but clumsy
• Asked suggestive questions interviews
• Kids given suggestion and stereotype
• Asked if sam did the suggestion
• Low in control
• Higher but low in stereotype <20
• Over 30 in suggestion
• Nearly 45% in stereotype + suggestion
• Not that memories are bad → more suggestible
• Question themselves and believe adults

Question 12

steps to improve kids testimony

Answer 12

• Interview kid asap after event → know that they can remember
• Encourage kid to tell truth and can say idk to questions, correct interviewers when wrong
• Start by asking kid to describe event in own words and follow up with open ended questions
  o What happened next? What did the other kids do? Etc.
  o No y or n questions
• Allow kid to feel comfortable in interview by starting with neutral event
• Ask questions that consider alternate explanations of event

Question 13

developmental trends in problem solving

Answer 13

• Kids tend to become more effective problem solvers with age
  o Even infants try to problem solve
• Research shows that even young kids sometimes show remarkable skill
• Adolescents often still prone to error

Question 14

features of kids and adolescent problem solving

Answer 14

• Young kids sometimes fail due to inadequate encoding processes
  o Cant encode all of essential info
  o Ex. conservation tasks, only focus on 1 aspect
• Gets better as memory does and knowledge of world does
• Young kids don’t plan ahead
• Successful problem solving depends on knowledge specific to problem and general processes
  o Sometimes expect others to solve problems for
• Kids and teens use a variety of strategies
• Heuristics: rules of thumb, based on personal experience
• Analytical problems solving more effortful and incorporates logic and math

Question 15

collaboration in problem solving

Answer 15

• Enhances problem solving
  o Must be supported by teaching methods that view classmates as resources
• Don’t encourage collab enough in western schools → more about competition and individual ability

Question 16

scientific problem solving

Answer 16

• Kids and even teens exhibit faulty scientific reasoning
  o Cofound variables
  o Reach conclusions prematurely based on little evidence
• Kids and teens have difficulty theory and data
• Even young kids can be trained to think more scientifically