The Information-Processing Approach Information Processing approach
Week 7 – Chapter 9: Cognitive Development: The Information-Processing Approach Information Processing approach: perspective = human mind is likened to a computer, processing info from environment through perception and attention (input), encoding it in memory (storage and retrieval) and applying info to solution of problems (software) -
Changes in brain and sensory systems (hardware), rules and strategies of thinking (software) Focused on gradual and quantitative changes in mental functioning
Human cognition system 2 MAIN LIMITATIONS: 1. Amt of info that can be processed at one time 2. Speed which it can process info 4 Basic Assumptions of the information Processing approach 1. Thinking is info processing 2. There are mechanisms or processes of change that underlie the processing of info (ex, with development children better able to encode info) 3. A self-modifying process 4. Careful task analysis is crucial = task or problem situation itself influences child’s cognitive performance, involves error analysis: attending to errors - Microgenetic analysis: a very detailed examination of how a child solves a problem 4 key mechanisms of info processing: 1) encoding, 2) strategy construction, 3) automatization, 4) generalization 3 Information processing models 1. The Multi-store model: info is depicted as moving through a series of processing units (sensory register: rcvs info from environment and stores fleetingly, ST memory: 15 – 30 seconds and LT memory), each of which it may be stored fleetingly or permanently S 2. Connectionist Models: describe mental processes in terms of interconnections of the neural network = emphasize biological component! 3. Non-Piagetian Information-Processing Models: integrate Paiget’s ideas w/info processing perspective describes development in 4 stages, each stage an increasingly sophisticated Executive Control Structure: a mental blueprint/plan for solving a class of problems, 3 components: 1) A representation of problem, 2) A representation of goal of the problem, 3) A representation of a strategy for attaining the goal
Cognitive processes: ways that the human mental system operates on info
4 cognitive processes that changes with development 1. Encoding and Representation – encode relevant info into mental representations: info stored mentally in some form, ex, verbal, pictorial (attend to that info determines what is retained) 2.
Strategies – conscious cognitive or behavioural activities that are used to enhance mental performance decrease the load on info processing system by increasing the efficiency of each process
3. Automization: making behaviours that once were conscious and controlled into unconscious and automatic ones (ex, learning to drive a car with a stick shift) 4. Generalization: applying strategy learned while solving a problem in one situation to a similar problem in a new situation Executive Control process: cognitive process serves to control, guide, and monitor the success of a problem-solving approach a child uses -
Expertise can enhance cognitive processing in children in a familiar domain
Development of some important cognitive abilities 1. Attention: the identification and selection of particular sensory input for more detailed processing - Control of attention even preschoolers can direct attention to relevant info when distracting info is present - Selective attention: person focuses on some features of the environment and ignores others 2. Attention and Planning: selective attention + deliberate organization of a sequence of actions oriented toward achieving a goal - learning about the thinking of another appears to enhance the child’s own understanding of the problem 3. -
Memory Semantic memory: all the world knowledge and facts a person possesses Episodic memory: memory for specific events, autobiographical nature Remembering can be intentional (explicit memory: req efforts to store and retrieve) or unintentional (ex, language) 3 areas of memory that improve development: 1) Basic Capacities, 2) Strategies that enhance memory, 3) world knowledge: what a child has learned from experience and knows about the world in general (meaningfulness and goal for activity improves memory)
Basic Capacities include: 1) Memory Span, 2) Processing efficiency, 3) Processing speed
3 Common Memory Strategies: 1) Rehearsal (the style not frequency diff in performance), 2) Organization (remembered by categorization and hierarchical relationships), 3) Elaboration: one adds to info to make it more meaningful easier to place in LT memory 3 Reasons why young children do not use strategies: 1. Mediation Deficiency: inability to use strategies to store info in LT memory 2. Production Deficiency: inability to generate and spontaneously use memory strategies that one knows 3. Utilization Deficiency: inability to use a memory strategy that one knows (when it new and less practised skills using may consume much mental effort, Cost vs. Benefits) Problem solving and Reasoning Problem solving: identification of a goal and of steps to reach that goal 4 areas of Problem solving 1. Rule-based problem solving - Solving problems by using rules that guide thinking 2. Solving Problems by Analogy - Using one problem to solve another - Source/analogue: the familiar situation, target analogue: the unfamiliar situation 3. Using cognitive tools - Structure of routine behaviours or forms of representations - 3 types: 1) Scripts: basic outline on what one should expect/do in a specific situation (help remember over a long period, organize + free up space in info-processing system for new info), 2) Cognitive maps: mental representation of the spatial layout of a physical or geographical place (landmark knowledge route knowledge mental map), 3) symbolic representations (most basic form involves understanding notational systems) 4. Deductive Reasoning: logical thinking that reaches a conclusion based on a set of premises or statements that have already been laid out - Syllogism: a type of deductive reasoning that inc a major premise, a minor premise and a conclusion - 3 types of deductive reasoning: 1) Propositional logic: logic of a statement is evaluated based on the info in the statement alone (as in syllogism), 2) Transitive reasoning: mental arrangement of things along a quantitative dimension, 3) hierarchical categorization: organization of concepts into levels of abstraction that range from the specific to the general Numerical Reasoning 5 basic principles of counting that lead to children’s competence with numbers:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
The one-one principle: each object should be counted once and only once The stable-order principle: always assign the numbers in the same order The cardinal principle: a single number can be used to describe the total of a set The abstraction principle: the other principles apply to any set of objects The order-irrelevance principle: the order in which objects are counted are irrelevant
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Children may be competent with some or all of these principles at diff points in their development infants and children use numbers before they understand counting principles people may use diff cognitive processes when counting small groups vs big groups Subitizing: a pre-attentive process in which sets of 4 items or fewer are counted or understood effortlessly, accurately and quite rapidly
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Metacognition: knowledge about knowing and control of cognitive functioning 1) 2) -
2 Important areas of research: Children’s knowledge of task Knowledge of specific strategies for learning and remembering Particularly sensitive to the value of external aids to memory Aware of value of associations in memory
EVALUATION OF THE INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPROACH Strengths: -
Precision in breaking down cognitive processing into component operations how children of diff ages perceive, and attend to the world around them, learn and memorize info in the world, solve problems etc.
Limitations: -
Breaking down cognitive processing into components many small theories about particular abilities that are difficult to combine rather than a general theory of cognition Symbol grounding problem: computers simply do not process info in the same way people do (flaw in computer anology)
Changes in brain and sensory systems (hardware), rules and strategies of thinking (software) Focused on gradual and quantitative changes in mental functioning
Human cognition system 2 MAIN LIMITATIONS: 1. Amt of info that can be processed at one time 2. Speed which it can process info 4 Basic Assumptions of the information Processing approach 1. Thinking is info processing 2. There are mechanisms or processes of change that underlie the processing of info (ex, with development children better able to encode info) 3. A self-modifying process 4. Careful task analysis is crucial = task or problem situation itself influences child’s cognitive performance, involves error analysis: attending to errors - Microgenetic analysis: a very detailed examination of how a child solves a problem 4 key mechanisms of info processing: 1) encoding, 2) strategy construction, 3) automatization, 4) generalization 3 Information processing models 1. The Multi-store model: info is depicted as moving through a series of processing units (sensory register: rcvs info from environment and stores fleetingly, ST memory: 15 – 30 seconds and LT memory), each of which it may be stored fleetingly or permanently S 2. Connectionist Models: describe mental processes in terms of interconnections of the neural network = emphasize biological component! 3. Non-Piagetian Information-Processing Models: integrate Paiget’s ideas w/info processing perspective describes development in 4 stages, each stage an increasingly sophisticated Executive Control Structure: a mental blueprint/plan for solving a class of problems, 3 components: 1) A representation of problem, 2) A representation of goal of the problem, 3) A representation of a strategy for attaining the goal
Cognitive processes: ways that the human mental system operates on info
4 cognitive processes that changes with development 1. Encoding and Representation – encode relevant info into mental representations: info stored mentally in some form, ex, verbal, pictorial (attend to that info determines what is retained) 2.
Strategies – conscious cognitive or behavioural activities that are used to enhance mental performance decrease the load on info processing system by increasing the efficiency of each process
3. Automization: making behaviours that once were conscious and controlled into unconscious and automatic ones (ex, learning to drive a car with a stick shift) 4. Generalization: applying strategy learned while solving a problem in one situation to a similar problem in a new situation Executive Control process: cognitive process serves to control, guide, and monitor the success of a problem-solving approach a child uses -
Expertise can enhance cognitive processing in children in a familiar domain
Development of some important cognitive abilities 1. Attention: the identification and selection of particular sensory input for more detailed processing - Control of attention even preschoolers can direct attention to relevant info when distracting info is present - Selective attention: person focuses on some features of the environment and ignores others 2. Attention and Planning: selective attention + deliberate organization of a sequence of actions oriented toward achieving a goal - learning about the thinking of another appears to enhance the child’s own understanding of the problem 3. -
Memory Semantic memory: all the world knowledge and facts a person possesses Episodic memory: memory for specific events, autobiographical nature Remembering can be intentional (explicit memory: req efforts to store and retrieve) or unintentional (ex, language) 3 areas of memory that improve development: 1) Basic Capacities, 2) Strategies that enhance memory, 3) world knowledge: what a child has learned from experience and knows about the world in general (meaningfulness and goal for activity improves memory)
Basic Capacities include: 1) Memory Span, 2) Processing efficiency, 3) Processing speed
3 Common Memory Strategies: 1) Rehearsal (the style not frequency diff in performance), 2) Organization (remembered by categorization and hierarchical relationships), 3) Elaboration: one adds to info to make it more meaningful easier to place in LT memory 3 Reasons why young children do not use strategies: 1. Mediation Deficiency: inability to use strategies to store info in LT memory 2. Production Deficiency: inability to generate and spontaneously use memory strategies that one knows 3. Utilization Deficiency: inability to use a memory strategy that one knows (when it new and less practised skills using may consume much mental effort, Cost vs. Benefits) Problem solving and Reasoning Problem solving: identification of a goal and of steps to reach that goal 4 areas of Problem solving 1. Rule-based problem solving - Solving problems by using rules that guide thinking 2. Solving Problems by Analogy - Using one problem to solve another - Source/analogue: the familiar situation, target analogue: the unfamiliar situation 3. Using cognitive tools - Structure of routine behaviours or forms of representations - 3 types: 1) Scripts: basic outline on what one should expect/do in a specific situation (help remember over a long period, organize + free up space in info-processing system for new info), 2) Cognitive maps: mental representation of the spatial layout of a physical or geographical place (landmark knowledge route knowledge mental map), 3) symbolic representations (most basic form involves understanding notational systems) 4. Deductive Reasoning: logical thinking that reaches a conclusion based on a set of premises or statements that have already been laid out - Syllogism: a type of deductive reasoning that inc a major premise, a minor premise and a conclusion - 3 types of deductive reasoning: 1) Propositional logic: logic of a statement is evaluated based on the info in the statement alone (as in syllogism), 2) Transitive reasoning: mental arrangement of things along a quantitative dimension, 3) hierarchical categorization: organization of concepts into levels of abstraction that range from the specific to the general Numerical Reasoning 5 basic principles of counting that lead to children’s competence with numbers:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
The one-one principle: each object should be counted once and only once The stable-order principle: always assign the numbers in the same order The cardinal principle: a single number can be used to describe the total of a set The abstraction principle: the other principles apply to any set of objects The order-irrelevance principle: the order in which objects are counted are irrelevant
-
Children may be competent with some or all of these principles at diff points in their development infants and children use numbers before they understand counting principles people may use diff cognitive processes when counting small groups vs big groups Subitizing: a pre-attentive process in which sets of 4 items or fewer are counted or understood effortlessly, accurately and quite rapidly
-
Metacognition: knowledge about knowing and control of cognitive functioning 1) 2) -
2 Important areas of research: Children’s knowledge of task Knowledge of specific strategies for learning and remembering Particularly sensitive to the value of external aids to memory Aware of value of associations in memory
EVALUATION OF THE INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPROACH Strengths: -
Precision in breaking down cognitive processing into component operations how children of diff ages perceive, and attend to the world around them, learn and memorize info in the world, solve problems etc.
Limitations: -
Breaking down cognitive processing into components many small theories about particular abilities that are difficult to combine rather than a general theory of cognition Symbol grounding problem: computers simply do not process info in the same way people do (flaw in computer anology)
