Information-processing Perspective of Cognitive Development

Multistore model

information-processing model depicts info as flowing through three processing stores:

• sensory

• short-term

• long-term

Sensory store

stimuli noticed via senses, briefly available for further processing

short-term store

if attended to sensory store, stimulus retained for a few seconds and operated on

Long-term store

info that’s examined and interpreted is permenantly stored for future use

Executive control processes

involved in regulating attention and determining what to do with the information that has just been gathered or retrieved from long-term memory

Short-term store in infants

Looking span used to assess the amount of visual information that infants can keep in mind - increases over the first year of life

Short-term store in children

the capacity of the store is assessed usingg tests of memory span - capacity gradually increases across childhood and adolescence, but knowledge about randomly presented items affects children’s memory span

Long-term store in children

• as children grow older, they remember more specific/atypical information over extended periods

• autobiographical memory is often socially constructed - parents will encourage children to recall details about an encounter to help arrange into a narrative

Scripted memory

Toddlers and preschoolers tend to remember events that typically happen in familiar contexts - this occurs even in novel situations

Early development strategies

18-36 month-olds use simple strategies to locate objects

Adaptive strategy-choice model

• children have multiple strategies in their repetoire which compete with one another for use

• with age, more sophisticated strategies are likely to win

• when new or unfamiliar problems arise, older fallback strategies may be employed

Encoding strategy - rehearsal

repetition of items attempting to retain

• 3-4 years: rarely rehearse, limited working memory capacity

• 7-10 years: rehearse more and remember more

• over time, children develop more effective rehearsal strategies

Encoding strategy - organisation

Grouping/classifying stimulus into meaningful clusters

• 5-6 years do this less so than 9-10 years; older children use less categories and remember more

• younger children can be trained to do this but fail to do it spontaneously

Retrieval strategy - free vs cued recall

young children may struggle with free recall but can provide more extensive information when cued to recall specific info

• age 5: children realize they should write thins down if easily forgotten (external cues can aid memory)

• across childhood and adolescence, individuals use an increased number of retrieval strategies to aid memory

Neural maturation and attention

• reticular formation not fully myelinated until puberty, which controls attention regulation

• maturation of frontal lobes, which controls inhibition

Development of attention

dimensions of attention develop across childhood and adolescence

• attention span

• selective attention

• cognitive inhibition

Cognitive inhibition

the abiility to prevent selves from executing a certain response

Older vs younger children in memory

• working memory capacity: older children more efficient than younger children in processing information

• memory strategies: older children use memory strategies to encode, store, and retrieve information more efficiently

• meta-memory: older children know more about memory processes, allowing them to use the most effective strategies

• knowledge base: older children know more in general, improving their ability to learn and remember

Contributions

provides a detailed description of how processes like attention and memory can change with age and influence children’s thoughts

Drawbacks

• not enough attention to neurological contributors to intellectual growth

• not enough attention to sociocultural influences