4 tenants of information processing
 1) Thinking is information processing
 2) Change in cognitive skills reflect changes in encoding,
   strategy construction, automatization, and generalization
 3) Development is self modification
 4) Task presentation can effect performance

Atkinson Shiffrin’s model of information processing

                      –  Sensory store
                      |           |
Exec Control  –  Short term memory – Response
                      |           |
                      –  Long term memory
 

Level of processing
 Shallow processing - surface characteristics
 Deep processing - detailed processing of information

Encoding
 Mental representation
  - how is the information stored?  verbally? pictorially?
 Scripts
  - general representation of typical sequences of events
Strategies (ex mathematics)
 - counting
 - min strategy
 - decomposition
 - complex computation
    Other strategies
 Mnemonics
     - rehearsal
         - continual repeating of information
     - organization
         - grouping information together in meaningful ways
     - elaboration
     - Retrieval
         - free recall
        - cued recall
         - recognition
 

Automatization
Generalization

Development of Attention

Attention Span - initially very short
-children at young ages are very distractable
- unable to inhibit task irrelevant thoughts

Attentional strategies
- as children become older, they develop strategies
- Row comparisons
    - 3 year olds -scan all information in Gr 1 & compare it to Gr 2
    - 4 year olds-scan items sequentially for Gr1 & Gr2 simultaneously
- With age children develop plans, systematically gather info
- 2 houses
    - 5 year olds scan only some of the windows
    - 6½ year olds compare window to window
    - 8 year olds scan all windows
        - scan top windows, then middle windows, then bottom

Selective Attention
- attend to some information (task relevant information) while ignoring
other information (task irrelevant information - noise)
- younger children tend to attend to both task relevant and task
irrelevant information
- older children attend to only task relevant information

Inhibition - not only need to be concerned with what information gets
let into the system but we also need to be concerned with our ability to
prevent information from getting into our consciousness and
preventing it from interfering with our performance
 - selectively forgetting unimportant information
 - babies in Rovee-Collier’s study did not respond as expected
when the color of the blanket (irrelevant information) changed

Inhibition linked to frontal lobe development
 - as irrelevant information increases the amount of space
available to process relevant information decreases
 - as inhibition increases, we can inhibit irrelevant information
allowing more space for relevant information
 - development of inhibition increases speed, capacity, and the
ability to choose novel responses that will lead to quicker responsesMemory
    - memory span
 - gradually increases until plateau of 7 +/- 2 in early teens
        - Child expert Chess Player v Adults
            on digit span and chess piece location

    - processing speed
        - increase myelinization of the association areas
        - articulation
        - operating efficiency hypothesis

    - strategies
        - production deficiencies
        - utilization deficiencies
 - mediation deficiencies
        - multiple strategies

    -some reasons why children may choose to not use a given strategy
        1) novel strategies require more effort
        2) may be attempting new strategies to see how they work
        3) poor metacognitive skills

Autobiographical Memory and Event memory
    - Infantile amnesia
        -information about events early in life can not be recalled
        -earliest memories tend to be around 4
        -earlier memories tend to be of highly stressful events
        -2 theories re: why info is lost
                - language
                - sense of self

     - Eyewitness Testimony
     - abuse/neglect cases and custody cases
     - suggestibility
     - age differences in free and cued recall