Santrock tls 5_ppt_ch07

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

1

A Topical Approach to LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT

Chapter Seven:

Information Processing

John W. Santrock


2

Information-Processing Approach

• Analyzes the ways people process information about their world– Manipulate information– Monitor it– Create strategies to deal with it– Effectiveness involves attention, memory, thinking


3

Simplified Model of Information Processing

Fig. 7.1


4


Mechanisms of ChangeEncoding Mechanism by which

information enters memory

Automaticity Ability to process information with little or no effort

Strategy construction

Discovering new procedure for processing information

Metacognition Cognition about cognition, or “knowing about knowing”


5


• Speed of processing information– Assessed using reaction time tasks

• Changes in speed of processing– Improves dramatically through childhood and

adolescence– Changes due to myelination or experience?– Decline begins in middle adulthood; continues

into late adulthood


6


• Does processing speed matter?– Linked with competence in thinking– For many everyday tasks, speed is unimportant– Efficient strategies can compensate for slower

reaction times and speed– Processing linked to accumulated knowledge and

abilities to perform


7

The Relation of Age to Reaction Time

Fig. 7.2


8

Attention

• Attention: focusing of mental resources– Four types

• Infancy– First year: orienting/investigative process

• Directs attention to locations (‘where’)• Recognize objects and their features (‘what’)• Attention gains flexibility and speed

– Sustained (focused) attention increases


9

Types of Attention

Selective attention

Focusing on specific aspect of experience that is relevant while ignoring others

Divided attention

Concentrating on more than one activity at a time

Sustained attention

Maintain focus on selected stimulus over prolonged period; called vigilance

Executive attention

Focus on action planning, goals, errors and compensation, monitoring, and unknown


10

Attention

• Infancy– Sustained (focused) attention linked to

• Habituation: decreased responsiveness to stimulus after repeated presentations

• Dishabituation: recovery of a habituated response after change in stimulation

– Joint attention begins about 7 to 8 months of age– Gaze following: begins 10 to 11 months of age


11

Attention

• Infancy– Joint attention

• Individuals focus on same object or event and requires– Ability to track another’s behavior– One person directing another’s attention– Reciprocal interaction

• Frequency of caregiver-infant interactions affect language development and vocabulary size


12

Attention

• Childhood– Attention control ability increases with age– Preschool child: deficits in attention control

• Attention to salient stimuli• Planning improves as part of playfulness

– Young children: most advances in executive and sustained attention

• Affected by early experiences and education


13

The Planfulness of Attention

In three pairs of houses, the windows were different

In three pairs of houses, all windows were identical

J

(b)(a)

J

By filming the reflection in children’s eyes, one could determine what they looked at, how long they looked, and the sequence of their eye movements.

Fig. 7.4


14

Attention

• Adolescence– Processing of irrelevant information decreases– Ability to shift from one activity to another at will

• Better at tasks that require this skill

– Better at multi-tasking• Number of competing tasks increases with age• Expands information attended to; distracting• Processing ability varies among adolescents


15

Attention

• Adulthood– Older adults may not be able to focus on relevant

information as effectively as younger adults– Less adept at selective attention– Older adults (50-80) performed worse in the

divided attention condition than two younger groups; affected by vision and environmental distractions


16

Memory

• Memory: retention of information over time– Allows humans to span time in reflection over life’s

activities

• Processes of memory– How information is encoded, retained, and stored

in memory– Memory has imperfections


17

Processing Information in Memory

Fig. 7.5


18

Memory

• Constructing memory– Schema theory

• Many reasons for inaccuracy; “we fill in gaps”• People construct and reconstruct memories; mold to fit

information already existing in mind

– Schemas• Mental frameworks that organize concepts and

information; affects encoding and retrieval


19

Memory

• Culture, gender, and memory linked– Culture selectively sensitizes members of society

• Cultural specificity hypothesis– Cultural environment affects experiences

• Females better than males at– Episodic and emotion-linked memories– Processing information in elaborately and in more

detail


20

Memory

• Infancy– Recent research: limited type of memory at 3 mos.– First memories

• Rovee-Collier infant memory experiments

– Implicit memory: memory without conscious recollection; skills and routine done automatically

– Explicit memory: conscious memory of facts and experiences; appears after 6 months


21

Memory

• Infancy– Infantile Amnesia

• Also called childhood amnesia• One cause: immature prefrontal lobe• Adults recall little or none of first three years• Prefrontal lobes in brain play important role in memory of

events


22

Memory

• Childhood– Memory improves considerably after infancy– Short-term memory

• Retains information up to 15 to 30 seconds without rehearsal (span is very limited)

– Working memory• Kind of mental workbench for manipulating and

assembling information• More active, powerful than short-term memory


23

Memory

• Childhood– Working memory

• Make decisions, solve problems• Comprehend written and spoken language

– Long-term memory• Relatively permanent, unlimited type of memory• Questions about child’s ability to testify in court

– Several factors affect this ability


24

Working Memory Model

Fig. 7.9


25

Memory

• Children’s long-term memory – Children as eyewitnesses

• Age differences in susceptibility• Individual differences in susceptibility• Interviewing techniques can cause distortions;

determines if child’s testimony is accurate

– Depends on number of factors involved• Reliability influenced most by interviewer


26

Memory

• Children’s long-term memory – Strategies used to improve

• Rehearsal: repetition better for short-term• Organizing: making information relevant

– Imagery• Creating mental images for verbal information

– Elaboration• Engaging in more extensive processing of information;

use of examples, self-referencing


27

Memory

• Children’s long-term memory – Fuzzy trace theory

• Two types of memory representations– Verbatim memory trace: precise details– Gist: central idea of information

– Knowledge• Influences what people notice and how they organize,

represent, interpret information


28Fig. 7.11

Imagery and Memory of

Verbal Information


29

Memory

• Adulthood– Working memory and processing speed

• Linked to aging, reading and math achievement • Performance peaks at 45; declines at age 57• Decline affects both new and old information

– Long-term memory has two systems


30

Memory

• Adulthood– Long-term memory has two systems

• Explicit: conscious/declarative memory– Episodic memory: retention of information about

the where and when of events» Autobiographical memory» Reminiscence bump


31

Memory

• Adulthood– Long-term memory has two systems

• Explicit: conscious/declarative memory– Semantic memory: one’s knowledge about world

including field of expertise• Implicit memory: routine skills and procedures

performed automatically (unconscious memory)


32

Memory

• Adulthood– Aging and explicit memory

• Younger adults have better episodic memory• Older adults remember older events better than more

recent events; take longer to retrieve semantic information

– Accuracy fades with the aging of a memory– Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon


33

Memory for Spanish as a Function of Age Since Spanish Was Learned

Fig. 7.13


34

Memory

• Adulthood– Aging and implicit memory

• Less adversely affected by aging than explicit memory

– Source memory • Ability to remember where something is learned

– Physical, emotional setting; speaker identity• Failures increase with age in adult years; relevancy of

information affects ability


35

Memory

• Adulthood– Prospective memory

• Remembering to do something in the future• Age-related; declines depend on task• Time-based tasks decline more• Event-based tasks show less decline


36

Thinking

• What is thinking?– Manipulating, transforming information in memory

• Childhood – Key aspects of infant cognitive development

• Attention, memory, imitation, concepts– Concepts:

» ideas about what categories represent– Categories:

» Grouping based on characteristics


37

Thinking

• Childhood – Concepts

• Perceptual categorization: as young as 7 mos.• Categorization increases in second year; infants

differentiate more– Large gender differences based on interests

• Infant’s abilities much richer, more gradual, less stage-like, occurs earlier than Piaget thought


38

Thinking

• Critical thinking– Grasping deeper meaning of ideas; open minded

• Ask what, how, and why • Examine facts and determine evidence• Recognize one or more explanations exist• Evaluate before accepting as truth• Speculate beyond what is known


39

Thinking

• Scientific thinking– Aspects of thinking are domain specific (e.g. math)– Aimed at identifying causal relationships– ChiIdren: emphasize causal mechanisms

• Important differences in reasoning• Cling to old theories regardless of evidence• More influenced by happenstance• Have difficulty designing experiments


40

Thinking

• Solving problems– Involves finding appropriate way to attain a goal– Children: need skill in and out of school)

• Teach strategies and rules to solve problems• Teacher is model, motivate children• Use effective strategy instruction• Encourage alternative strategies/approaches

– Use analogies to solve problems


41

Thinking

• Adolescence• Critical Thinking

– If fundamental skills not developed during childhood, critical-thinking skills unlikely to mature in adolescence

• Decision Making– Older adolescents appear more competent– Ability does not guarantee every day usage– Social context plays key role here


42

Thinking

• Adulthood– Practical problem solving, expertise improve

• Expertise: extensive, highly organized knowledge and understanding of particular domain

– Rely on accumulative experience– Process and analyze data automatically– Have better strategies and shortcuts


43

Thinking

• Adulthood– Education, work, and health

• Influence older adult cognitive functioning• Higher educational levels today than in past• Work — now more cognitively oriented• Health: better medicine, longer life spans


44

Thinking

• Cognitive neuroscience and aging– Studies brain and cognitive functioning links

• Relies on fMRI and PET scans

– Changes in brain have affects• Decline of neural circuits in prefrontal cortex• Decline in hippocampus functioning• Neural differences in age larger for retrieval than

encoding


45

Thinking

• Older adulthood– Use It or Lose It:

• Practice helps cognitive skills - mindfulness• Exercise, mental health linked to cognitive fitness

– Cognitive training• Training can improve some cognitive skills• Some loss of plasticity in late adulthood


46

Metacognition

• Metacognition– Takes many forms– Knowledge about when and where to use

particular strategies– Metamemory: knowledge about memory– Theory of mind: curiosity or thoughts about how

mental processes work• Changes as child ages


47

Metacognition

• Developmental changes– Ages 2 to 3: awareness of emotions, perceptions,

and desires– Age 5: learn realization of false beliefs– Age 7: deepening appreciation of the mind itself– Middle and late childhood: mind seen as active

constructor of knowledge– Adolescence: realize ambivalent feelings exist


48

Developmental Changes in False Belief Performance

Fig. 7.17


49

Metacognition

• Individual differences– Evidenced as children reach certain milestones in

their theory of mind• Executive function: several functions important for

flexible, future-oriented behavior

– Theory of mind and autism• Difficulty in social interactions, communication, repetitive

behaviors, interests• Have difficulty developing theory of mind


50

Metacognition

• Metamemory– Limited in children– Preschoolers have inflated opinion of memories,

little appreciation for memory cue importance– Understanding of memory abilities and skill in

evaluating performance on memory tasks improves considerably by 11-12 years of age


51

Metacognition

• Metacognition in adolescence and adulthood– Adolescents more likely than children to effectively

manage and monitor thinking– Middle age adults have accumulated a great deal

of metacognitive knowledge– Older adults tend to overestimate memory

problems they experience on daily basis


52

The End

Santrock tls 5_ppt_ch07

Documents

Transcript of Santrock tls 5_ppt_ch07