Chapter 4 Information-Processing Theory & Dynamic Systems Lecture

Question 1

What are information -processing theories?

Answer 1

A class of theories that focus on the structure of the cognitive system and the mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems

Trying to specify the processes of how children are thinking of the world

View child as limited capacity processing system

View child as active learners and problem solvers

Focus on HOW change occurs

Children are becoming better problem solvers by going with more efficient options

Developmental change is continuous, in small increments that happen at different ages on different tasks for different children

Question 2

What are three types of memory processes distinguished in information-processing theories?

Answer 2

Working memory, long-term memory, and executive functioning

Question 3

What is working memory?

Answer 3

Memory system that involves actively attending to, maintaining, and processing information

Limited in both its capacity and length of time for which it can maintain information in an active state without updating

People use strategies like chunking or semantic organization to make it easier to remember things at the moment

Question 4

What is long-term memory?

Answer 4

Information retained on an enduring basis
Includes autobiographical memory, schemas, factual knowledge

Can retain an unlimited amount of information for unlimited periods of time

Question 5

What is executive functioning?

Answer 5

It controls behavior and thought processes

The three key executive functions are inhibition, enhancement of working memory and cognitive flexibility

Question 6

What are the mechanisms for memory development?

Answer 6

Basic processes
Strategies
Content Knowledge

Question 7

What are basic processes?

Answer 7

The simplest and most frequently used mental activities

Includes associating, recognizing, recalling, generalizing and encoding

Question 8

What is encoding>

Answer 8

The process of representing in memory information that draws attention or is considered important

Question 9

What are strategies?

Answer 9

The growth of strategies as a major source of memory development

Ex. Strategy of rehearsal

Question 10

What is content knowledge?

Answer 10

The idea that children’s knowledge about almost everything increases with age and experience

Question 11

What is the Overlapping-Waves model?

Answer 11

It is an information-processing theory

The idea that there are different strategies in existence at the same time in a child

Some might be explicitly taught or the child discovered on their own

But the most efficient strategy will win over, over time

Question 12

What are dynamic systems theories?

Answer 12

A class of theories that focus on how change occurs over time in complex systems

Continuous change

Subsystems (perception, action, memory, attention) work together to determine behavior

The role of Context

Children are internally motivated to learn about the world around them and to explore and expand their own capabilities

Emphasize infants interest in the social world as crucial motivator of development

Question 13

Infants learning from Actions Study

Answer 13

Procedure:
Infants were outfitted with velcro mittens that enabled them to grab and explore velcro-covered objects that they otherwise could not have picked up.
After 2 weeks of successfully grabbing the Velcro-covered objects with the Velcro-covered mittens, infants showed greater ability to grab and explore ordinary objects without the mittens than did other infants of the same ages

Question 14

What are the two development issues prominent in dynamic-systems theories?

Answer 14

How the cognitive system organizes itself and how it changes

Question 15

How does the cognitive system organizes itself?

Answer 15

Views development as a process of self-organization that involves integrating attention, memory, emotions, and actions as needed to adapt to a continuously changing environment.

Question 16

What is the A not B error view from the dynamic-system theories?

Answer 16

A not B error results from competing influences

Memory for previous reaches, motor habits, attentional cues, delay

The error reflects how multiple processes are coordinated in real time, not a conceptual limitation about object permanence itself.

Focuses on the interaction of all these processes of the error

Question 17

What are the mechanisms of change according to dynamic systems theories?

Answer 17

Changes occur through mechanisms of variation and selection that are analogous to those that produce biological evolution

Variation: refers to the use of different behaviors to pursue the same goal.

Selection:involves increasingly frequent choice of behaviors that are effective in meeting goals and decreasing use of less effective behaviors.

Question 18

What are influences on children’s selection among alternative approaches?

Answer 18

The relative success of each approach in meeting a particular goal: as children gain experience, they increasingly rely on approaches that produce desired outcomes.

Efficiency: children increasingly choose approaches that meet goals more quickly or with less effort than do other approaches.

Novelty, the lure of trying something new.