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Chapter Eight
Cognitive Development:
Information Processing
Perspectives
Information Flow and the
Multistore Model

Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968) developed a
multistore model of the information processing system.
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The first component is the sensory store (or sensory
register), in which stimuli are noticed and briefly available
for further processing.
The second information processing store is the short-term
store (STS). Here stimuli are retained for several seconds
and operated on (also called working memory).
New information that is operated on while in the STS
passes into the long-term store (LTS).

This is the vast, relatively permanent storehouse of
information that includes your knowledge and impressions
of the world.
The Information-Processing
System
Responses
Environmental
Input
Sensory
Store
Short-term
(“working”)
memory
Executive control
processes
Long-term
memory
Other Information-Processing
Theories

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Similar theories propose that the mind like a
computer, and thought to be of limited
capacity.
Also included in most informationprocessing models is a concept of executive
control processes, or metacognition.

These include processes by which we plan,
monitor, and control all phases of information
processing.
Differences in InformationProcessing Capacity
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STS (short-term store) is usually assessed using
memory span. Memory span refers to the number
of rapidly presented and unrelated items that can
be recalled in exact order.
Age differences in memory span are highly
reliable. This differences, however, might
represent differences in strategy use, rather than in
age and capacity.
Differences in InformationProcessing Capacity

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Cowan and his colleagues also discovered that
span of apprehension could measure STS capacity.
The span of apprehension refers to the number of
items people can keep in mind at one time.
Prior knowledge also effects memory. Knowledge
base, how quickly children process information,
also accounts for differences.
Strategies and Knowledge of
Thinking
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Information processing often depends on
strategies, which are goal oriented operations
used to help in task performance.
Frequently children have production deficiencies,
in which children fail to produce a strategy on
their own but can do so when instructed.
Strategies and Knowledge of
Thinking

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Utilization deficiencies occur when children
experience little or no benefit from a new strategy.
Sielger uses the adaptive strategy model to
explain how there are a variety of strategies which
children can choose from at a given time, but one
strategy usually wins and that’s the one they use.
As children get older, more sophisticated
strategies begin to win.
What children know about
Thinking
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Implicit thinking refers unconscious thought,
which accounts for most of our thinking.
Explicit thinking is conscious thinking that we
are aware of.
Children’s understanding of what thinking is
increases over the preschool years. The are few
developmental differences, however, that occur in
implicit cognition during this time.
Fuzzy-Trace Theory: An
Alternative View

Proposed by Brainerd and Reyna, this theory
postulates that people encode experiences on a
continuum from literal, verbatim traces to fuzzy,
gistlike traces.
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A gist is a fuzzy representation of information that
preserves the central content but few precise details.
Other alternatives to traditional informationprocessing models emphasize the role of
inhibition.

Inhibition is the ability to prevent ourselves from
executing some cognitive or behavioral response.
Development of Attention

With age, attention spans, the capacity for
sustaining attention to a particular activity,
increase dramatically. This is thought to be a result
of the increasing myelination of the central
nervous system because reticular formation, the
area of the brain responsible for attention
regulation, is not fully myleniated until puberty.
Development of Attention
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Selective attention, the ability to focus on a given
task while ignoring distracters, develops with age.
Planning of attention also develops with age.
ADHD is used to describe children who find it
very difficult to sustain attention for an extended
period of time. These children fail to develop
planned attention strategies.
Memory: Retraining and
Retrieving Information

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Strategic memory refers to the processes
involved as one consciously attempts to
retain or retrieve information.
On the other hand, event memory refers to
long-term memory for events.

Autobiographical memory is memory for
important events that have happened to us.
Development of Memory
Strategies

Mnemonics are effortful techniques used to
improve memory, including rehearsal,
organization, and elaboration.
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Rehearsal is a strategy for remembering that involves
repeating the items one is trying to retain.
Semantic organization is another strategy that
involves grouping or classifying stimuli into
meaningful (or manageable) clusters that are easier to
retain.
Elaboration involves adding something to (or creating
meaningful links between) the bits of information one
is trying to retain.
Retrieval Processes

Retrieval is a class of strategies aimed at
getting information out of long-term
memory.
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In free-recall, a recollection occurs that is not
prompted by specific cues.
In cued-recall, a recollection is prompted by a
specific cue associated with the setting in which
the recalled event originally occurred.
Metamemory
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Metamemory is an aspect of metacognition that is
defined by one’s knowledge about memory and
memory processes.
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This increases with age and contributes to
developmental and individual differences in memory.
Older children known more about memory processes,
and their greater metamemory allows them to select the
most appropriate strategies for the task at hand and to
carefully monitor their progress.
The Development of Event and
Autobiographical Memory
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Event memory in general, and our memory for
personal experiences (or autobiographical
memory) are rarely intentional as strategic
memory is.
Although infants can remember events that
happened earlier in time, most of us display
infantile amnesia.
Early autobiographical memory is based on
scripts. Even very young children organize their
experiences in terms of scripts, which become
more detailed with age.
Autobiographical Memories

These memories improve dramatically during the
preschool years.
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Parents play a key role in the growth of autobiographical
memories by discussing past events, providing clues about what
information is important, and helping children recall their
experiences.
One aspect of autobiographical memory that has received
much attention is age differences in eye witness memory
and suggestibility.
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The accuracy of children’s eyewitness memory increases with
age.
Young children are more susceptible to suggestion than older
children and are more likely to form false memories.
Problem Solving

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Problem solving involves having a goal,
obstacles to that goal, strategies for
overcoming the obstacles, and an evaluation
of the results.
Research by Zelazo and colleagues suggests
that young children often fail to use a rule
even though they can demonstrate
knowledge of the rule.
Reasoning
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Reasoning is a special type of problem
solving, one that usually requires that one
make an inference.
Analogical reasoning involves using
something one knows already to help reason
about something not known yet.
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Usha Goswami (1996) proposed the relational
primacy hypothesis, suggesting that analogical
reasoning is available in infancy.
Factors that Affect Children’s
Analogical Reasoning
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One important factor is knowledge.
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Their knowledge, or familiarity, with the
underlying relations used to make the analogy
is significant.
Metacognition plays a role as well.
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A conscious awareness of the basis on which
one is solving the problem is integral.
Development of Number and
Arithmetic Skills
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The ability to process quantitative
information is innate.
Counting normally begins shortly after
children begin to talk.
By age 4 ½ to 5, children have acquired the
principle of cardinality—the knowledge
that the last word in a counting sequence
represents the number of items in a set.
Early Arithmetic Strategies
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Children’s earliest arithmetic strategies are
based on counting, at first out loud, and
often using props such as fingers.
At some point during the early grade-school
years, children’s solutions to simple
arithmetic problems become more covert.
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They no longer count objects on their fingers,
because they can perform arithmetic operations
in their heads.
Cultural Influences on
Mathematics Performance
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Unschooled children develop arithmetic strategies
that they apply quite skillfully to the practical
problems they encounter.
East Asian youngsters typically outperform
American children in certain academic subjects,
most notably mathematics.
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This is a result of the structure of their languages and
instructional practices that aid them in retrieving math
facts and acquiring computational skills.
Conclusions
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The information processing approach has been
criticized due the lack of attention it pays to
neurological as well as sociocultural influences.
The information processing approach also fails to
provide an integrative theory of children’s
intelligence and shows a lack of understanding for
cognitive diversity.
Still the approach has greatly advanced our
understanding of children’s intellectual growth.