procesarea informatiilor

Question 1

What led to the rise of information processing approach to cognitive development?

Answer 1

Children’s performance on Piagetian tasks is constrained by limitations on memory and attention.
Infants might fail the tasks because of information processing limitations.

Question 2

What is an example when children might fail to process information and therefore fail a task?

Answer 2

A child would be presented with 2 lines
A longer than B
B longer than C
Is A longer than C?
Children fail this task.
It’s not that they can’t conceptualise the difference.
They don’t remember the difference.

Question 3

What is the information processing approach? (Case and Pascual Leone)

Answer 3

Concerned with the development of cognitive processes (memory, attention)
- How does memory develop and how does it impact on performance on tasks.

Question 4

What is Atkinson and Shiffrin’s modal model? (1968)

Answer 4

1. We receive information from the environment and that info is acquired through our senses.

Echoic memory - what we see
Iconic memory - what we hear

2. Info is registered through the sensory register
3. That gets moved to STM
4. Information can either be lost from STM or moved to LTM through rehearsal.

Question 5

Are there improvements in short term memory with age?

Answer 5

5yo manage 4 items
12 yo manage 6-7 items
Adults manage 7+/- items

Question 6

What implications does reduced memory have?

Answer 6

Implications on a range of abilities like reading, maths.

Question 7

What are problems for the capacity account of STM?

Answer 7

The fact that children have capacity limitations is not a good explanation of the development of memory.

A large factor in the capacity is motivation to remember - children are better when the task interests them.

Short term visual memory capacity is adult-like by the end of the first year of life.

Question 8

What is the role of rehearsal in STM?

Answer 8

Ability to rehearse is a better predictor of STM performance than age.
So your STM performance will be better based on your rehearsal not your age.

Question 9

What is the working memory model?

Answer 9

Central executive
Visuo-spatial sketch pad - navigation
Phonological loop - hearing

Question 10

What is executive functions?

Answer 10

How we organise our knowledge such that it can be deployed usefully

Question 11

What is executive functions used for?

Answer 11

Working memory
Attention shifting
Problem solving
Planning
Inhibition

Question 12

What is the brain region for executive functions?

Answer 12

Prefrontal cortex

Question 13

What is executive functioning like in infancy?

Answer 13

Cloth pulling task
Infants presented with an object they can only retrieve by an intermediary action (pulling cloth towards them)

7m struggle - they retrieve object without watching it
8m - show means-ends behaviour - looking for their goal when pulling the cloth

Question 14

What does a successful intentional response require?

Answer 14

Holding a goal in mind
Inhibiting response to goal
Planning a sequence of actions

Question 15

What has the A not b task shown about executive function in infancy?

Answer 15

Manually retrieving objects requires means-ends coordination and that’s why infants fail to AB task

They look where the object was hidden but they reach for where they know it was hidden before - they can’t inhibit this

Question 16

What are explanations for the AB error?

Answer 16

Piaget said it’s because of lack of object permanence
Diamond said they are unable to inhibit a habitual response - working memory and inhibition are important (which are part of executive function)

Question 17

What does this suggest about knowledge?

Answer 17

Knowledge is there but we have to wait for the executive processes to mature.

Question 18

What is executive functioning like in childhood?

Answer 18

The windows task

Learning phase:
A prize is hidden in 1 of 2 opaque boxes, and the child chooses a box for experiment by pointing at it. If prize is in box A, they should choose box B for experimenter.
3-4 yo can do this task

Testing phase
Now windows are put
4 yo succeed
3yo point at the prize THEY want
Difficulty with inhibiting goal response

Question 19

What is the dimension chance card sort task?

Answer 19

Tests executive functioning in 3-4yo
Children asked to sort a stack of blue stars and red faces either by colour or shape
Half way through the game the rule changes

3yo continue sorting cards with respect to the first dimension even if the rules have changed
BUT they show they do understand the question so they know what’s being asked but they can’t inhibit

Question 20

What underlies the development of executive function?

Answer 20

2 broad categories of theories:

1. Maturational (information processing) - changes in simple capacity-like processes like inhibition and STM duration
2. Conceptual (genetic epistemology) - appeal to changes in the way children think about problems

Question 21

How does conceptual change come about?

Answer 21

Piaget put forward one kind of account of this with genetic epistemology: assimilation and accommodation