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Child Development - A Thematic Approach
, Fifth Edition
Danuta Bukatko - College of the Holy Cross
Marvin W. Daehler - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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| | Chapter Outline
Chapter 9:
Cognition: Information Processing
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The information-processing approach
Information-processing theorists view human cognition as an information
management system with limited space and resources. Many traditional information-processing
models are called multistore models. These models describe information as flowing through a sequence of mental structures, including a sensory
store, memory stores, a central processor, and a response system. Control
processes are mental activities that are assumed to move information from
structure to structure.
The beginning of information processing often takes place in the sensory register, where information is held for a fraction of a second. The information may
move to working memory, which holds it for no more than a couple of minutes, or to long-term memory, the repository of more enduring information.
The limited-resource model emphasizes not mental structures but various cognitive activities or operations.
The resources for operations are limited; thus, a considerable amount of
mental activity performed on one operation (e.g., processing sensory information) will make less activity
available for other operations (e.g., storage or retrieval of information).
Multistore models explain cognitive development as increases in the size
of structures and in the proficiency of control processes. Limited-resource models describe cognitive growth
as increases in the efficiency of operations (as the proficiency of sensory
processes improves, more mental activity is available for remembering). -
The development of attention
Before an individual can process information, he or she must attend to the
relevant stimuli. Several developmental trends in attention have been observed.-
Sustaining attention
During the first six years of life, striking increases occur in the ability
to sustain attention on an activity. This developmental trend results from
a maturing central nervous system and from the overall cognitive growth that occurs. This growth is evidenced by the increasingly complex activities that
maintain a child's interest and the child's increasingly creative ways of playing with objects. -
Deploying attention
Older children are better able to deploy their attention effectively and efficiently as is
evident from changes in the way they systematically search visual arrays. -
Selective attention
As they grow older, children also show greater selective attention, more easily ignoring irrelevant information.
Atypical Development: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Approximately 5 to 10 percent of children in the United States have this
disorder. ADHD is characterized by a pattern of impulsivity, high levels
of motor activity, and attention problems. As a result, these children often have academic difficulties
and problems in social relationships. The causes of this disorder are presumed
to be neurological, but at this time ADHD is poorly understood. For example,
an overstimulating, intrusive environment also seems to be related to ADHD. Being able to inhibit
response in simple situations appears unrelated to ADHD. Treatment includes
stimulant medications such as Ritalin, which has the paradoxical effect of
slowing down behavior in children. |
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The development of memory
The ability to remember is critical for performing cognitive activities.
Thus, memory has been an important area of developmental research and has
been conceptualized in many different ways. Episodic memory is memory for events that took place at a specific time and place. Semantic memory is memory for facts and general concepts not related to any specific event.
Psychologists have also distinguished between recognition memory, the ability to recognize whether a stimulus was previously encountered, and recall memory, the ability to reproduce stimuli that were previously encountered.-
Recognition memory
Recognition memory has been observed very early in development with techniques such as habituation,
the paired-comparison procedure, and operant conditioning. These studies
suggest that recognition memory is a rudimentary ability available even in
early infancy. The ability to recognize familiar stimuli endures for long periods of time. However,
early memories can be disrupted by changes in the context of the activity.
Reminders within a certain number of days, or time windows, appear to be
important for maintaining recognition memory for longer durations in infants. Even newborns display recognition
memory and older infants may recognize situations months or even years later. -
Recall memory
Studies show that the memory span, which is believed to indicate an individual's short-term (working) memory capacity, increases with age. This developmental
change in recall appears to be related to the child's improved ability to use memory strategies as she or he gains experience
and as a result of increasing efficiency and processing speed.
Elicited imitation reveals that by the time most children are 13 months, they need to see a
sequence of events only once in order to remember it one month later and
by 20 months their memories for events last as long as a year.
Children usually recall the words at the end and the beginning of a list
better than the words in the middle. Better recall of the end of a list is
called the recency effect and is believed to reflect what is available in short-term memory; better recall of beginning words is called the primacy effect and is believed to reflect the recall of information that was stored as a
result of effective use of memory strategies. Developmental research indicates
that children three years of age and older show similar recency effects, but older children show a stronger
primacy effect.
Many memory strategies can be used to improve recall, including rehearsal, organization, the reordering of items in terms of some higher-order relationship, and elaboration, linking items in the form of images or sentences, which strengthen memory
by imposing meaningful relationships among things to be remembered. The tendency
of children to spontaneously use memory strategies increases with age, particularly
in children over seven. The failure of young children to use memory strategies
on their own has been referred to as production deficiency. Young children also display a utilization deficiency; that is, when first applied, memory strategies often fail to improve memory performance. Children often use multiple strategies in remembering.
Children may acquire memory strategies from direct instruction by parents
and teachers, as well as an emerging understanding of metamemory that leads to the child's realization of a need for memory strategies, and the child's expanding general knowledge base.
The importance of general knowledge in recall has been demonstrated by observation
of the effect of domain-specific knowledge on the ability to remember. For
example, children knowledgeable in chess display superior recall of briefly
presented chess positions compared to college-educated adults unfamiliar with chess. The attainment
of a knowledge base is also evident in terms of scripts (organized schemes of knowledge) in which new, specific memories are stored.
Logically or causally ordered events are easier to remember than arbitrary events.
Fuzzy trace theory suggests that memories are stored on a continuum from
information faithful to the original event to information that only retains
the core or gist. Younger children, although more limited in memory, are more likely to retrieve verbatim information than are older children.
However, such memories are more vulnerable to disruption. Other new views
of memory emphasize that with development, children are better able to inhibit
or avoid processing irrelevant information and to remember only information appropriate to the task at hand. -
Autobiographical memory
Most individuals are unable to recall experiences prior to about three years
of age, a phenomenon called infantile amnesia. By about three years of age, however, children begin to display autobiographical memories; that is, they can recall fairly lengthy and cohesive descriptions of the
events they have experienced. Explanations for infantile amnesia include the inability to code information verbally, lack of understanding of self,
difficulty in understanding the structure of narrative recall, and absence
of a theory of mind at younger ages.
Controversy: How Reliable is Children's Eyewitness Testimony?
Although research has demonstrated that children have impressive memories,
some have questioned the accuracy of their memories when children are called
on to testify in the courts. Some studies indicate that young children are
more likely than older children to distort their recollections of events as a result of
leading questions, although other studies have failed to find age differences
in susceptibility to leading questions. Several factors may influence children's susceptibility to misleading information, including the perceived power of the person providing
the misinformation and the emotionally charged environment of the courtroom.
Memory also clearly declines over the passage of time. |
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Brain development and memory
Researchers are beginning to understand the neurological substrate of memory.
The hippocampus appears to be especially important for recognition memory.
Portions of the prefrontal and temporal lobes mature toward the end of the first year of life at the time when new memory capacities are displayed.
In infants, electrical activity in the brain is more pronounced and consistent
for familiar events than for unfamiliar events, another interesting indication
of the linkage between the brain and memory.
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The development of problem-solving skills
Problem-solving skills, which typically involve several steps in analyzing
a body of information, have been noted in young children. Investigators have observed children as young as twelve months intentionally combine several
subgoals to reach a goal. Nevertheless, considerable growth in problem-solving
ability occurs with development. Piaget described the development of problem-solving
skills as an abrupt, qualitative shift in thinking. Many contemporary information-processing
theorists emphasize the gradual refinement of component skills such as memory
and attention rather than changes in logical problem-solving ability.-
Components of problem solving
An essential requirement in problem solving is the ability to use symbols
to represent real objects. Although infants may be able to represent other
objects via symbols, even preschoolers show limitations in this capacity. For example, between two and three years
of age, children have to overcome difficulties with dual representations,
that is, the ability to understand that an object can be represented and,
at the same time, can represent something else. Once able to do so, the child displays representational insight. Numerous other advances are evident in children's ability to understand, for example, maps as a form of spatial representation.
These advances begin in the preschool period and continue into adolescence.
Planning is another key aspect of problem solving. As children become older,
their ability to create plans improves and their plans become more flexible.
Part of this emerging competence may arise from parental and instructional
guidance and an increasing orientation toward the future as children begin to anticipate, and modify,
familiar routines.
With development, children also become more likely to choose from among several
strategies for solving a problem rather than relying on one. Children not
only resort to multiple strategies in their efforts to solve problems, but also blend
strategies together. In doing so, they also become more proficient at using
those strategies that are most appropriate for the problem at hand.
It is also important to transfer or generalize successful problem-solving skills to new situations. In analogical transfer, elements of one problem are successfully applied to solve a problem in a
different domain. Research indicates that toddlers, and possibly even infants,
are capable of displaying analogical transfer.
Examining Research Methods: Using the Microgenetic Approach to Study Children's Problem-Solving Strategies
Because cross-sectional and longitudinal studies do not focus on the precise
changes that cognitive processing undergoes during problem solving, an alternative method, the microgenetic approach, has been established. This method assesses the strategies children initiate
in efforts to repeatedly solve similar problems and helps to shed light on the mechanisms of transition from one strategy to another. This fine-grained analysis
of trial-to-trial changes in performance has been shown to provide a rich
source of information about thought processes and their development. |
Research Applied to Education: Facilitating Transfer in the Classroom
Procedures for facilitating transfer in the classroom include providing multiple
contexts in which to encode information, organizing information in scripts
or other frameworks, identifying commonalities in problems across content areas, and having students actively apply
what they have learned. |
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The development of scientific thinking
Scientific reasoning requires formulating a hypothesis, varying one factor at a time while holding other factors constant, and observing the consequences
of these manipulations on some outcome. Children begin to understand the
relationship between a hypothesis and observable outcomes in the elementary
school years. However, younger elementary school children often have difficulty formulating and coordinating
multiple hypotheses to determine which of several different potential factors
may be responsible for an outcome. However, with practice and direct instruction,
children show noticeable improvement in scientific problem solving.-
The executive function.
As children develop, they are better able to control their cognitive processing,
analyze tasks they face, and deploy and monitor strategies. In order to do so, they must coordinate various components of
cognitive processing. The prefrontal cortex is one area of the brain responsible
for such planning, as children with prefrontal cortex damage often have difficulties
with these tasks. Metacognition, the child's awareness and knowledge of their own cognitive processes is one behavioral
sign that the child's executive function is developing.
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