Task 4 Flashcards
Information processing theories
Class of theories that focus on structure of cognitive system and mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems.
Two characteristics of these theories
It specifies precisely the processes involved inchildrens thinking
It puts emphasis in thinking as an activity that occurs over time
What is task analysis?
Research technique of identifying goals, relevant information in the environment, and potential proccesing strategies for a problem
What is the childrens nature?
information processing theorists see childrens cognitive growth as occuring continuously, in small increments occuring at different times on different tasks.
Child as a limited capacity processsing system?
Childrens thinking is limlited by everal factors that are gradually surmounted as cognitive development arises:
Memory capacity
Speed thought proccess
Availability of useful strategies and knowledge
Explain how the factors that limit children cognitive development are surmounted
Memory capacity :Surmounted by the amount of information they can proccess at one time
Speed of thought ^proccess :Surmounted with increase of speed with which they execute thought processing
Availability of useful strategies and knowledge: Surmounted through acquisition of new strategies and knowledge
Child as a problem solver
Information processing theories assume that children are active problem solvers.
What is problem solving?
Proccess of attaining a goal by using a strategy to overcome an obstacle
Central developmental issues
uniqueness of information processing theories lies on the emphasis on precise descriptions of how change occurs and on how thay address issues of nature and nurture.
Development of memory
Mos of informtion proccessing theories distinguish among working memory, long term memory and executive functions
Working memory
Involves actively attending to, gathering, maintaining, storing and processing information.
Limited in its capacity ( the amount of information it can store) and in legth of time it can retain information without updating activities.
How do capacity and speed of working memory change along the years?
Till when are spatial and verbal information represented seprately in working memory?
Capacity and speed vary with task and type of material being processed
Capacity and speed increase with age and relevant exprience
Al in part to maturational changes i the brain
Spatial and verbal infromation are represented separately in working memory until the age of 10
What is long term memory?
Information and knowledge that people accumulate over their lifetime
It can retain an unlimited amount of information for unlimited periods of time.
Including factual knowledge conceptual knowledge procedural knowledge attitudes and reasoning strategies
Not all on none form in long term memory?
People store information in different units and can retrieve some units without retrieving others
What are executive functions?
Involve control of cognition and integrates informartion from working and long term memory to acomplish goals. Prefrontzl cortex plays important role in this cognitive control
What are the three major types of executive functions?
Those that inhibit tempting actions that would be counterproductive
Those that enhance working memory through the use of startegies
Those that makes- us be cognitive flexible( takignsomeone elses shoes)
When do executive functions emrge and when are they fulfilled?
Exectuive functions emerge during preschool years but dont fully mature until early adulthood.
What does quality of exectuive functioning during early childhood period predicts?
Quality of executive functioning during early childhood predicts important life outcomes later like academic achievement, enrollment in college, income and occupational status during adulthood
What are the explanations of memory development?
What are the three capapbilities being limited from being better?
They are efforts to explain proccesses that make memory as good as it is at each age and limitations preventing it form being better focus on three types of capabilities.
Basic processes
strategies
content knowledge
WHat are basic processes?
Simplest and most frequently used mental activities
They include association of events,recognizing objects as familiar, recalling facts and procedures -, generalizing form one instance to another and encoding
What is encoding
Basic process of representing in memory, information that draws attention or is considered important. It is key to all the other basic processes. information that is not encoded, is not remembered later. Also it shows how memoy is selective .
What are the biological processes that contribute to faster processing?
Myelination(prenatal period through adolescene) and an increased connectivity among the brain regions(especially prominent in later childhood and adolescence).
Strategies
When do strategies arise?
Plan of action designed to achieve a goal
Between 5 to 8 years children start to use broadly useful memory startegies
Name two types of strategies and explain them
Rehearsal: Proccess of repeating infromation multiple times in order to remember it
Selective attention: Proccess of intetnionally focusing on information that is most relevant to current goal
