1. Information Processing Lecture 8
Chapter 6

2. Information Processing
Not a single, unified theory
Investigates:
Attention
Memory
Thinking
Metacognition: Knowledge of when and how to use strategies to think, remember, and problem-solve.

3. Principles of Change Automaticity Strategy Construction
No conscious effort required
Strategy Construction
Self-modification
Metacognition
Gradual change

4. Speed of Mental Processing
Rises dramatically across childhood
Young adult comparison study
10 year olds were 1.8 times slower
12 year olds were 1.5 times slower
15 year olds were the same
Declines from the 40’s
Experience or biological maturation?
myelination

5. Speed of Mental Processing
Does processing speed matter?
May help you think better
May help you learn faster
May be compensated for by experience
***correlational study showed that lower IQ scores were associated with an earlier death

6. Attention Habituation in Infancy Long-lookers vs. short-lookers
Infants with brain damage do not habituate well

7. Attention in Childhood
Control improves with age
10-month olds more distractible than 26 month olds
Preschoolers may watch TV for half an hour at a time
Anderson and others (1985) visual attention drastically improves in the preschool years

8. Selective Attention
Older & more socially advantaged children are more focused & less distractible
Ruff & Hobart (1996) Ability to pay attention in preschool is related to achievement, relationship & social skills
Related to school readiness
Peer rejection and aggressive behavior are related to lack of ability to control attention

9. Attention to Salience vs. Relevance
Preschoolers pay attention to whatever stands out
After age 6 or 7, there is more cognitive control
Older children shift attention better
Older adults may begin to lose the ability to shift attention (driving)

10. Memory Constructed (& Reconstructed)
Guided by schemas – existing knowledge & understanding
Misinformation Effect (can be distorted)/source amnesia
Bugs Bunny study

11. Types of Memory Implicit Explicit – (declarative) Procedural
emotional, conditioned, reflexive
Explicit – (declarative)
episodic
semantic

12. Development of Memory Rovee-Collier
Babies have detailed memory at 2 ½ months
Ties a baby’s ankle to a mobile. They kick and move the mobile. What do they do if placed in the crib weeks later?
They kick, but only if the mobile is the same.
Infants 2-6 months can carry memory to 1 ½ - 2 years.
Is it only implicit memory?

13. Memory in Infancy Other researchers -
Babies do not show explicit memory until the second half of the first year of life.
Explicit (conscious) memory improves substantially during the second year.

14. Infantile Amnesia
No permanent long-term memory before age 3, little in pre-school (infantile amnesia).
May have to do with lack of enough development in the hippocampus and/or pre-frontal lobes

15. Children’s Short-Term Memory
Memory span in digits
2 digits 2-3 year olds
5 digits year olds
6 ½ digits year olds
(Related to speed of repetition)

16. Children’s Long-term Memory - Eyewitnesses
There are age differences in susceptibility to suggestion.
There are also individual differences (low self-concept, low support from parents).
Interview techniques can produce substantial distortions.

17. Long-term Memory Strategies
Rehearsing
Organizing
Elaboration (Thinking about it)
Personal relevance
Images

18. Children’s Long-term Memory
Increase strategy use with age
Fuzzy-trace theory
Using gist vs. verbatim
Affected by Knowledge base
Schema elaboration
Chase & Chi

19. Metamemory (Use of Strategies) Improves During Childhood
Ages 5-6 know that
Familiar items are easier to remember
Short lists are easier than long ones
Recognition is easier than recall
Forgetting becomes more likely over time

20. Metamemory (Use of Strategies) Improves During Childhood
At Ages 5-6, do not know that
related items are easier to remember
Gist is easier than verbatim
Inflated opinion of their memory abilities

21. Adult Memory Working memory Processing speed?
Peak at 45? Decline at 57?
Processing speed?

22. Facts & Findings
Young adults have better episodic memory than older ones
Among older adults, older memories are less accurate than more recent ones
Older adults take longer to retrieve semantic memory

23. Facts & Findings
Implicit memory is less likely to be affected by aging
Source amnesia gets worse (source memory declines) in older adulthood
Prospective memory (remembering to do something)
Time-based poorer than event-based

24. Adult Memory: Summary & Review
Declines in
Processing speed
Working memory
Episodic memory

25. Negative Influences on Memory in Older Adulthood
Physical declines
Anxiety & depression
Beliefs about losing memory important
Attitudes & feelings important (e.g., low self- efficacy)
Good health will reduce, but not eliminate declines