Lecture Notes for Apr 6, 2010

Cognitive Development- Post Piaget Decline of Piaget's Theory ? challenges to Piaget's theory began to erode its status ? not disproven ? but unable to explain some important findings -Decalage -Early competence of infants Rise of Information Processing and Cognitive Theories ? Theories of "adult" cognition -humans as information processing systems -computer analogy input-->processing--> output ? cold, inorganic metaphor, but does state the problem clearly ? became dominant in 1970s through 1990s General Characteristics of IP theories ? focus of representation, storage, and transformation ? very precise, process-level analysis ? concern for task requirements ? human thinking can be broken down into component parts ? thinking is limited but flexible The Triarchic Model- Atkinson and Shiffrin sensory input --> sensory memory (unattained info is quickly lost)--> working (short term) memory-->long term memory Sensory Memory ? very brief store, large capacity ? unattained info quickly lost - .33 to 3 seconds (depending on modality) ? combination of automatic and conscious processes Working/short term memory ? recieves information from SM and LTM ? limited capacity: 7 (+/-) 2 ? information must be actively maintained -rehersal -elaboration Long Term Memory ? recieves info from SM and STM ? unlimited capacity ? unlimited trace duration ? forgetting as retrieval failure The Triarchic Model ? developed for adult cognition ? applied to cognitive development ? what might develop? Information Processing Models ? any process or store might undergo developmental change ? very different conception from Piaget's Theory -not concerned with the structure of knowledge -processing account *transformations *storage, retrieval, etc... An example: Development of Encoding ? Siegler interested in how children learn about their physical environments ? 5 and 8 year olds made predictions about a balance beam -weight and distance ? Siegler found that... -both 5 and 8 year olds used only weight initially -with feedback 8 year olds learned to also use distance but not 5 year olds ? Next, he re ran the study, but asked children to recall problems, not predict answers ? 8 year olds recalled distance information, but 5 year olds did not ? Siegler's Hypothesis: Difference in learning is a result of difference in encoding of problem ? how might you test this? ? Siegler training 5 year olds to encode distance -literally to recall it, not use it in problem solving ? then gave them problems (w/ feedback) that required use of distance information ? 5 year olds now learned to use distance -note that he never instructed them to do so directly ? difference between 5 and 8 year olds, abilities not a matter of underlying logical structure -rather, what info they encode about the problem Development of Memory ? memory is central to all cognition -also central to self, personality, emotion ? sometimes an active process -recalling someone's address -answer to a test question ? sometimes a passive of automatic process -navigating in environment -recognizing your roommate's face -knowing what behavior is appropriate when ? memory is constantly in use -involved in all activities ? What aspects of memory develop? -basic capacities -STM capacity -processing of efficiency -processing speed ? Strategies -actions that allow information to be maintained in STM -actions that allow info to be transferred to LTM ? Domain Knowledge -LTM becomes increasingly/structured with development -profound effects on memory ? Basic Capacities -short term memory capacity of STM span * young children can recall fewer items than older children For example, digit span task : 5,9,2,0,4,3 five year olds- 4 numbers 12 year olds = 7 college students = 8 ? Developmental improvement in STM span ? problems with this task and interpretation? ? can get similar effects with less meaningful items