Prepared by:

Iris E. Israel

is a "group of theoretical frameworks that address

• how human beings receive,

•mentally modify,

•remember information,

•On how such cognitive processes change over the course of development"

(McDevitt & Ormrod, 2004)

INFORMATION PROCESSING

THEORY

•theory that attempts to categorize the way information is recognized, utilized,

and stored in the memory.

•This theory recognizes the ability for a person to control what information is

processed and the changes and developments of these abilities

INFORMATION PROCESSING

THEORY CONT’D

•Thinking

•Analysis of stimuli

•Situational modification

•Obstacle evaluation

THE FOUR PILLARS OF THE

INFORMATION PROCESSING

MODEL

Thinking

The process of thinking includes the

activities of perception of external

stimuli, encoding the same and storing

the data so perceived and encoded in

one's mental recesses

Analysis of stimuli

This is the process by which the encoded stimuli are

altered to suit the brain's cognition and interpretation

process to enable decision making. There are four

distinct sub-processes that form a favourable

alliance to make the brain arrive at a conclusion

regarding the encoded stimuli it has received and

kept stored. These four sub-processes are encoding,

strategization, generalization and automatization.

Situational modification

This is the process by which an individual

uses his experience, which is nothing other

than a collection of stored memories, to

handle a similar situation in future. In case of

certain differences in both situations, the

individual modifies the decisions they took

during their previous experience to come up

with solutions for the somewhat different

problem.

Obstacle evaluation

This step maintains that besides the subject's

individual development level, the nature of the

obstacle or problem should also be taken into

consideration while evaluating the subject's

intellectual, problem solving and cognitive acumen.

Sometimes, unnecessary and misleading information

can confuse the subject and he / she may show

signs of confusion while dealing with a situation

which is similar to one he / she was exposed to

before, which he / she was able to handle

successfully.

1. Sensory Memory

2. Working Memory

3. Long-term Memory

Structure of the information-

processing system

:

Information is received through a

person's senses, it comes from the

environment around you

(McDevitt & Ormrod, 2004)

Sensory

Memory

holds information associated with

the senses (e.g., vision, hearing)

just long enough for the

information to be processed

further (mere seconds).

Sensory Memory Cont’d

Sensory Register

• detects visual, auditory, haptic (touch),

smell, taste, temperature, pain, body

position information

filters out much of the world's potential

information

limited capacity

seconds before decay

unconscious

STM functions as a temporary working

memory, whereby further processing is carried

out to make information ready for long-term

storage or for a response.

Working memory holds information for a

limited amount of time and holds a limited

amount of information.

Working

Memory

WORKING MEMORY

CONT’D

•Where information is processed and

"problem solving" occurs; the working

memory usually only processes things for

a short period of time.

• The working memory will process

information for longer periods of time if the

person is actively concentrating on the

information

B. Working memory

Encoding: recasts sensory

information into meaningful

representations suitable for

manipulation, using strategies like

rehearsal

organization

elaboration

Limited in capacity

Encoding/Learning Strategies

Rehearsal – attempting to learn something by repeating it over and over; repetition

Organization – attempting to learn something by identifying relationships among pieces of information as a way of categorizing them

Elaboration – embellishing on new information based on what you already know (using prior knowledge)

Environmental factors, e.g., culture, affect the kinds of strategies that children developChildren are more likely to use effective learning

strategies when teachers and other adults encourage their use, or when it is culturally meaningful

Teresa M. McDevitt and Jeanne Ellis Ormrod

Child Development and Education, third edition

Copyright ©2007 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

All rights reserved.

•where the information remembered over time is kept; there are many ways that

information is moved from working memory into long term memory

•represents our permanent storehouse of information, capable of retaining an unlimited

amount and variety of information.

Long-term Memory

C. Long-Term Memory (LTM)

The ability to remember information in LTM appears very early and improves with age

Children increasingly have conscious awareness of the past Infantile amnesia – general inability to recall past

events during the early years of life

The amount of knowledge stored in LTM increases many times over Knowledge base – one’s knowledge about specific

topics and the world in general

Teresa M. McDevitt and Jeanne Ellis Ormrod

Child Development and Education, third edition

Copyright ©2007 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

All rights reserved.

Children’s knowledge about the world becomes increasingly integrated

Schemas – tightly integrated set of ideas about a specific object or situation

Scripts – schema that involves a predictable sequence of events related to a common activity

Children’s growing knowledge base facilitates learning

Thinking and Reasoning Thought increasingly makes use of symbols

Symbols – mental entity that represents an external object or event, often without reflecting its perceptual and behavioral qualities

Logical thinking abilities improve with age Some logical thinking is evident in infancy Perceive cause and effect relationships as young

as 6 months old Reasoning is still influenced by personal motives and

biases

Gestures Sometimes foreshadow the emergence of more

sophisticated thinking and reasoning (e.g., Conservation task)

Appear to provide a way for children to experiment with cognitive ideas

Teresa M. McDevitt and Jeanne Ellis Ormrod

Child Development and Education, third edition

Copyright ©2007 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

All rights reserved.

Explicit Memory (declarative memory)

Episodic Memory

Semantic Memory

Autobiographical Memory

Implicit Memory (Procedural memory)

Priming

Divisions of Long Term

Memory

includes all of the memories that are

available in consciousness.

These are encoded by the hippocampus,

entorhinal cortex, and perirhinal cortex, but

consolidated and stored elsewhere

Explicit Memory

(declarative)

Episodic memory refers to memory for

specific events in time, as well as

supporting their formation and retrieval.

Some examples of episodic memory would

be remembering someone's name and what

happened at your last interaction with each

other.

Episodic Memory

Semantic Memory

Semantic memory refers to

knowledge about factual information,

such as the meaning of words.

Semantic memory is independent

information such as information

remembered for a test

Semantic Memory-- facts and generalized information (concepts, principles,

rules; problem-solving strategies; learning strategies)

Schema / Schemata -- networks of connected ideas or relationships;

data structures or procedures for organizing the parts of a specific

experience into a meaningful system (like a standard or stereotype)

Proposition -- interconnected set of concepts and relationships; if/then

statements (smallest unit of information that can be judged true or false)

Script -- "declarative knowledge structure that captures general

information about a routine series of events or a recurrent type of social

event, such as eating in a restaurant or visiting the doctor" (Stillings et

al., 1987)

Frame -- complex organization including concepts and visualizations

that provide a reference within which stimuli and actions are judged

(also called "Frame of Reference")

Scheme -- an organization of concepts, principles, rules, etc. that define

a perspective and presents specific action patterns to follow

Program -- set of rules that define what to do in a particular situation

Paradigm -- the basic way of perceiving, thinking, valuing, and doing

associated with a particular vision of reality (Harman, 1970)

Model -- a set of propositions or equations describing in simplified form

some aspects of our experience. Every model is based upon a theory or

paradigm, but the theory or paradigm may not be stated in concise form.

(Umpleby in Principia Cybernetica Web, no date)

Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical memory refers to

knowledge about events and

personal experiences from an

individual's own life

Procedural memory involves memories of

body movement and how to use objects in the

environment. How to drive a car or use a

computer are examples of procedural

memories

Implicit Memory (Procedural

Memory)

Implicit Memory Cont’d

Implicit memory - refers to the use of objects or movements

of the body, such as how exactly to use a pencil, drive a car,

or ride a bicycle. This type of memory is encoded and it is

presumed stored by the striatum and other parts of the basal

ganglia. The basal ganglia is believed to mediate procedural

memory and other brain structures and is largely

independent of the hippocampus.Research by Manelis,

Hanson, and Hanson (2011) found that the reactivation of the

parietal and occipital regions was associated with implicit

memory. Procedural memory is considered non-declarative

memory or unconscious memory which includes priming and

non-associative learning

Priming

Priming is an implicit memory effect in which exposure to

a stimulus influences a response to a later stimulus. It can

occur following perceptual, semantic, or conceptual

stimulus repetition. For example, if a person reads a list of

words including the word table, and is later asked to

complete a word starting with tab, the probability that he

or she will answer table is greater than if they are not

primed. Another example is if people see an incomplete

sketch they are unable to identify and they are shown

more of the sketch until they recognize the picture, later

they will identify the sketch at an earlier stage than was

possible for them the first time.

Attention;Rehearsal;Chunking;Encoding;Retrieval.

Processes that keep information "alive"

or help transfer it from one memory

stage to the next:

Selective attention refers to the learner's ability to select and process certain information while simultaneously

ignoring other information.

Several factors influence attention:

•The meaning that the task or information holds for the individual

•Similarity between competing tasks or sources of information

•Task complexity or difficulty (influenced also by prior knowledge)

Attention

Rehearsal is the process where information is kept

in short-term memory by mentally repeating it.

When the information is repeated each time, that

information is reentered into the short-term memory,

thus keeping that information for another 15 to 20

seconds (the average storage time for short-term

memory)

Rehearsal

Chunking is the process by which

one can expand his/her ability to

remember things in the short term.

Chunking is also a process by which

a person organizes material into

meaningful groups.

Chunking

refers to the process of relating incoming information to concepts and ideas already in memory in such a way that the new material is more memorable. Various encoding schemes include:

•Organization, e.g.: -grouping information into categories-outlines-hierarchies-concept trees

•Mnemonics

•Imagery

Encoding

Retrieval of Information from Long-Term Memory

The process of retrieval from LTM involves bringing

to mind previously learned information, to either (a)

understand some new input or (b) make a response.

Making a response may involve either recall or

recognition.

Retrieval

Recall or Recognition.

RecallIn free recall situations, learners must retrieve previously stored information with no cues or hints to help them remember. Cued recall tasks are those in which a hint or cue is provided to help learners remember the desired information.

Recognition involves a set of pregenerated stimuli (e.g., multiple-choice questions) presented to learners for a decision or judgment.

Environment and

heredity

Factors that can influence

intelligence and the processing

of information