Instructional Technology 6260 Cognitive Information Processing Theory

Cognitive Information Processing  Without looking at one, draw a picture of a penny

 Without looking at it, try to describe your watch:  what color is the face  what marks the hours  what color are the hands  is there a second hand  does it say anything on the face

Assumptions of Human Information Processing  Some learning processes are unique to humans  Mental events are the focus of study  The study of human learning must be objective and scientific  Individuals are actively involved in the learning process  Learning involves the formation of mental associations that are not necessarily reflected in overt behavior changes  Knowledge is organized  Learning is a process of relating new information to previously learned information

Terminology  Cognitive Process- any internal mental event and includes such phenomena as perceiving, attention, interpretation, understanding and remembering  Learning vs. Memory - learning is viewed as the acquisition of new information. Memory is related to the ability to recall information that has been previously learned  Storage - the process by which new information is placed in memory  Retrieval - the process by which people “find’ the information they have previously stored so they can use it again  Encoding - the process by which information is modified before it is stored - often helps storage

Dual-Store Model of Memory- Atkinson-Shiffrin model input lost lost? Sensory Register Short-term Memory Long-term Memory

Sensory Register  capacity  form of storage  duration

The Role of Attention  the process by which people select some of the environmental input they receive for further cognitive processing

What do you see?????

Factors Influencing Attention  Size  Intensity  Novelty  Incongruity  Emotion  Personal Significance  Competition between similar tasks

Which letters first draw your attention? a B c D

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Incongruity  I took a walk to the rabbit this morning.

Processes Underlying Attention  selective attention  automaticity  bottleneck effect

Short-term Memory  capacity  storage form  duration

Example 1. Memorize in sequence: How many right?

Example 2. Memorize in sequence: How many right?

Control Processes in STM  Chunking  Rehearsal  Retrieval

Long-Term Memory  Capacity  Form of Storage  Duration

Control Processes in LTM  Storage  Retrieval

Are STM and LTM Really Different? Consider:  acoustic vs. semantic memories  brain injury patients  changes due to aging

Metacognition/ Executive Control  people’s knowledge of their own learning, cognitive processes and their regulation of those processes to enhance learning and memory. Also known as thinking about thinking.

Implications for Instruction  Encourage multiple representations for encoding  Organize information to maximize retrieval  Support metacognition  Link new material to prior knowledge  Minimize interference  Recognize STM limitations