1. Information Processing Child Development PSY 356 Dr. Schuetze

2. Information Processing Model
Information Processing Approach: modeled after computer.
Copies of Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968 model.

3. Information Processing
Sensory Memory
fraction of a second
iconic and echoic
Short-term Memory
duration: 2-30 seconds
capacity: 7+2 pieces of information
maintenance rehearsal
chunking
interference
Sensory register - fraction of a second (afterimage)
-prevents you from being overwhelmed by thousands of incoming stimuli
-give you a moment to decide whether to process that piece of information.
-makes perception of lots of little pieces of information seem smooth & continuous.
Short-term memory
-limited duration (2-30 seconds)
-limited capacity (7+2 pieces of information)
Classroom Demonstration: “I’m going to read a list of numbers. After I complete each series write down as many numbers as you can remember in the right order.”
-maintenance rehearsal
-chunking
-interference

4. Information Processing
Long-term Memory
relatively permanent storage of information
encoding
elaborative rehearsal
recognition memory
recall memory
Long-term memory: relatively permanent storage of information.
Encoding: transfer of information from short-term into long-term.
-recognition (external cues - multiple choice) vs. recall (no external cues - When did Columbus discover America”) memory

6. Elaborative Rehearsal

7. Implicit and Explicit Memory
In LTM
Implicit memory
Unintentional and automatic
Stable through lifespan
Explicit memory
Deliberate and effortful
Recognition and recall tests
Increases until old age

8. Development of Memory: Infancy
Recognition memory: foot-kick paradigm
Recall memory
Recognition memory - present at birth - ability to differentiate between new and old stimuli.
2nd and 3rd months - recognition memory accelerates.
6 months - well developed
Sullivan, Rovee-Collier, & Tynes, foot-kick paradigm. Looking at duration of infant memory of contingency between kicking and mobile movement. At 3 months - exposed to stimuli for 9 minutes to text length of exposure for memory. Recognition of 8 days (context may function as retrieval cues) - increases with age.
Recall memory: ability to spontaneously reconstruct a behavior seen before - assessed by deferred imitation (without prompting).
-based on symbolic representations - infants not capable until 18 months.

9. Child Learning and Memory – Why memory improves
Basic capacities
Faster, more efficient processing
Storage capacity stable
Automaticity
Strategies improve
Rehearsal by age 7
Organization by age 10
Elaboration later
Older children learn faster and remember more than younger children - why?
(e.g., 2 year-olds can repeat back about 2 digits, 10-year-olds about 6).
Changes in basic capacities. Older children - more hardware for manipulating info., can process info. Faster at executing basic mental processes - automatic pilot.
Changes in memory strategies. Have learned & consistently use effective methods for getting information into long-term memory.
-use of rehearsal increases dramatically with age.
Flavell, 1985: 10% of 5-year-olds repeated names of pictures asked to recall,
more than half of 7-year-olds, 85% of 10-year-olds used this strategy.
-use of organization also increases (classifying items into meaningful groups).
Until age 9-10, children no better at recalling lists of items that can be grouped
than lists that cannot be easily grouped.
Increased knowledge about memory. Know more about how long they must study, which kinds of memory tasks take more effort, etc.
Increased knowledge about world. Makes material to be learned more familiar - easier to learn and remember than unfamiliar material.
-increased knowledge base (think about how hard it is to learn about a completely unfamiliar topic).

10. Metamemory Knowledge of memory Memory monitoring and regulation
Evidence by age 2
Unrealistic estimations
Accuracy by age 6
Linked to improved memory