General Knowledge of Science
The information-processing
approach views the human mind as a system that processes information
according to a set of logical rules and limitations similar to those with which
a computer is programmed. Research using this perspective tries to describe and
explain changes in the processes and strategies that lead to greater cognitive
competence as children develop.
The store model of human
information-processing proposes that information enters the system through
the sensory register and is encoded and stored in either short-term
memory or long-term memory. The level of processing
model proposes that memory is based on the depth and intensity applied to
the information stored rather than on the way or the location in which it is
stored.
The basic structures of the
information-processing system do not change with development; instead
development occurs through changes in the efficiency of the processes applied to
the information. Four important processes considered to be important in
development are encoding and representation, strategies,
automatization,and generalization. Most theorists also add
an executive function that develops in order to monitor, select, and
organize the processes that are applied to the information.
Effects of Knowledge on the Information-Processing System
In addition, knowledge plays a critical role in
children's abilities to encode and represent information.
Analyzing Task
Performance
Researchers using the information-processing
perspective often use task analysis to examine children's incorrect answers for
evidence of systematic errors. Although this approach is somewhat similar to
Piaget's concern with error analysis, more precise task analyses lead to a more
complete understanding of cognitive development.
Through microgenetic analysismicrogenetic
analysis, Robert Siegler has shown that developmental change is more
gradual, more variable, and "messier" than traditional views had suggested. This
kind of analysis shows that it is not so much abstraction, as Piaget believed,
as complexity that makes some tasks more difficult than others.
Comparing Piagetian and
Information-Processing Approaches
The neo-Piagetianneo-Piagetian Robbie
Case has elaborated the concept of executive function, proposing that children
develop an executive control structure for each set of problems that they
must solve. Each task in a series requires children to make new observations,
use new knowledge in forming new strategies, and create a new structure for
solving increasingly complex problems.
STEPS IN INFORMATION PROCESSING: A CLOSER LOOK
Perception and
Attention
Although every child may perceive the same
things in a particular environment, each child's attention may be concentrated
on different aspects of that environment. Perception and attention are tightly
interwoven, so that perception depends on how well we attend.
Two main theories describe how experience
affects perceptual learning. Piaget's enrichment theory proposed that
children add information to existing schemata over repeated contacts with an
object, elaborating or enriching a schema until they can distinguish among
different objects. In contrast, Gibson proposed a differentiation theory,
in which children gradually learn to attend to, identify, and make increasingly
fine discriminations among objects and events.
As children mature they can control and focus
their attention for greater periods. In addition, older children are better than
younger children at modifying their attention to fit task requirements. Older
children also implement more systematic plans to focus their attention when
gathering needed information, although younger children can make use of
attention-focusing strategies when these are provided to them.
Memory
Our memory span, or the amount of
information we can hold in short-term memory, improves between infancy and
adulthood. Some researchers suggest that this is due to the development of
increased capacity based on changes in the brain. Case suggests that the
difference is due to greater efficiency in the use ofexecutive processing
spaceexecutive processing space or to the development of better strategies
for organizing or "chunking" the information.
Children employ a wide range of cognitive
activities, such as prospective memory strategies, that increase the
likelihood that they will remember information at a later time. Some of these
are external, such as taking notes, but many are mental strategies.
The spontaneous use of verbal
rehearsal as a memory strategy clearly increases with age. Although even
young children can use rehearsal as a strategy if instructed to do so, they fail
typically to generalize the strategy to new tasks. Research suggests that this
failure probably results not so much from a mediation deficiency or
a utilizational deficiency as from aproduction deficiency which
may in turn spring from an interaction between the costs and benefits of using a
particular strategy. As children become more adept at strategy use, costs
decrease and benefits increase.
Another strategy that improves with age
is semantic organization in which children use categorization and
hierarchical relationships to process and store information. As is the case with
rehearsal, young children can successfully learn to use this strategy if
instructed to do so; partnering, in the Vygotskian sense, can help them to do
this.
Elaboration, a strategy that involves
adding to information to make it more meaningful and thus easier to remember,
appears to aid children's retention. The fact that elaboration improves recall,
despite the increase in informational load that it involves, underlines the
importance of meaning in memory.
World knowledge, or what a person has
learned about the world from past experiences, influences what the person will
understand and remember about a present event. Evidence for the role of world
knowledge comes from studies indicating that experts remember more than novices,
and that when memory tasks are presented in culturally familiar contexts,
children in Western and non-Western cultures perform equally well.
One important application of developmental
research on memory is in children's eyewitness testimony. Recent studies suggest
that children may not be reliable witnesses because they are susceptible to
suggestions by others. However, children are more resistant to misleading
questions when an interviewer is supportive and when they have been actively
involved in the recalled event.
Problem
Solving
Problem solving involves a high level of
information processing because it mobilizes perception, attention, and memory to
reach a solution. Although analogy is a powerful tool in problem solving, young
children and even adults often have difficulty recognizing and using analogies.
This may be in part because they fail to understand that the correspondence
between relations that is obtained within both source and target analogies is
far more important than similarity of analogies' features. With guidance in
drawing analogies, multiple examples of problem solution, surface similarity
between the problems, and experience with the problem's domain, children can
often succeed in reasoning by analogy.
Scripts of routine activities provide
children with basic outlines of how events occur in many familiar situations so
that their behaviors in those situations become almost automatic. Children as
young as three know about and use scripts to guide their actions. Children also
use mental maps and physical maps to negotiate their way through their
surroundings. Very young children, however, cannot draw a reasonable map of
familiar territory even though they may be good at finding their way through it.
Age interacts with the abilities to recognize objects that one has seen, as well
as their original context, and the ability to do this quickly.
Children use deductive reasoning skills, such
as transitive inference and hierarchical categorization to solve
problems. Even young children may understand transitive inference, but they
employ poor strategies when using it. One-year-olds can form categories based on
the similarity between objects, and slightly older children can use labels to
form hierarchical categories.
Children's competence with numbers is based on
five basic principles of counting that develop during the preschool years.
Children also learn other strategies for counting and, over time, become able to
distinguish between optional and necessary features of counting. Counting skills
may to some degree reflect the number-naming system of a child's native
language; it may be that systems that are inconsistent with the base-10 concept
make it more difficult for children to learn to count above 10.
METACOGNITION
Metacognition refers to the individual's
knowledge and control of cognitive activities. Metacognitive knowledge includes
the child's knowledge about the self, his theory of mind, and his knowledge
about the task and about specific strategies. Metacognitive control involves
using strategies to plan, monitor, check, and modify current strategies to
maximize performance.
The Child's Theory of
Mind
Flavell and his associates have articulated a
number of important understandings that preschool-age children have about their
own minds as well as a number of limitations on such young children's thinking.
In particular, young children have difficulty conceiving of continuous mental
content. They are likely to say that a person sitting quietly is not "having
thoughts."
Knowledge about the Self, the Task, and
Strategies
Although young children understand the
importance of some task parameters for memory, even first graders are not good
at monitoring their comprehension of information about a task. Young children
are aware of the importance of memory strategies, and they are particularly
sensitive to the use of external memory cues. However, older children have a
more accurate and realistic view of their own memory abilities, and they are
able to separate their own beliefs and desires from reality.
Metacognition and School
Performance
Researchers who have applied the concept of
metacognition to reading performance have found that better readers have more
metacognitive knowledge. Some school-based interventions aimed at teaching
metacognitive skills, such as reciprocal teaching, have resulted in
improved reading, studying, and academic problem solving.
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