Santrock tls 5_ppt_ch07

A Topical Approach to LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT
Chapter Seven:
Information Processing
John W. Santrock

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

Simplified Model of Information Processing Fig. 7.1

Information-Processing Approach Mechanisms of Change Encoding 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”

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

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

The Relation of Age to Reaction Time Fig. 7.2

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

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

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

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

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

The Planfulness of Attention In three pairs of houses, the windows were different In three pairs of houses, all windows were identical 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 J (b) (a) J

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

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

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

Processing Information in Memory Fig. 7.5

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

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

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

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

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

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

Working Memory Model Fig. 7.9

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

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

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

Fig. 7.11 Imagery and Memory of Verbal Information

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

Memory
Adulthood
Explicit : conscious/declarative memory
Episodic memory : retention of information about the where and when of events
Autobiographical memory
Reminiscence bump

Memory
Adulthood
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)

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

Memory for Spanish as a Function of Age Since Spanish Was Learned Fig. 7.13

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Developmental Changes in False Belief Performance Fig. 7.17

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

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

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

The End

Santrock tls 5_ppt_ch07

by jhoegh on Feb 21, 2011

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