Lecture 6Overview of Previous Lecture- Cognitive DevelopmentOverview of Current LectureI. AttentionII. Information Processing ModelIII. Strategies for MemoryIV. Explicit Memory V. Implicit Memory VI. Infantile Amnesia September 18 – Attention and Memory I. Attention – perception of stimulia. Focused attention: engage in one stimulusb. Sustained: long-term attention i. Exogenesis: bottom up, focus on qualitiesii. Endogenesis: top down, choose what you attend to c. Novelty preference declines after infancy d. Sustained attention improves due toi. Rapid growth of prefrontal cortex and brain development ii. Capacity to generate complex play goalsiii. Better attention leads to better cognitive outcomesII. Information Processing Model a. Forgotten or unattended stimuli are not processed at allb. Short Term Memory i. Capacity: 7 +/- 2 items (average for adults)1. STM in children: age 2-5 = 2 items; age 7 = 4-5 items, adolescence = 6-7 items a. Working memory in children: 2 items in early childhood, 4-5 in adulthood 2. Chunking (George Miller): group items together to remember them betterii. Attention iii. Automatic processing: becomes unconscious, rehearsed (tying shoes)c. Long Term Memory i. Capacity: essentially unlimitedii. Knowledge baseiii. Attention increases and becomes inhibition PSYC 307 1st Editioniv. Iconic memory capacity high in infants and remains close to the same through life III. Strategies for Memory a. Strategies for encoding information i. Rehearsal (~7 years old): repeating information ii. Organization (~8 years old): grouping related items 1. Association vs. categoricala. Younger children group by association, older by categoryiii. Elaboration (end of middle childhood): creating relationships/shared meaning between itemsIV. Explicit Memory (LTM)a. Recognition (established young)i. Noticing that stimulus is identical/similar to one previously experiencedii. Easier than recallb. Recall (develops more slowly)i. Generating mental representation of absent stimulusc. Reconstruction of memory (earlier in development)i. Verbatim: recoding information while in system, or as it is being retrieved (more taxing)ii. Fuzzy-trace, gist: less space in STM needed, frees up attention for thinking 1. Semantic Memory a. Vast, organizedb. Contributes to developmentc. Taxonomical (catergorical) or hierarchical 2. Episodic Memory a. Recall of personally experienced eventsi. Limited in infantsii. Retrieval better between ages 3-4b. “mental time travel” c. Scripts and autobiographicali. Scripts: repeated events (causal order to help remember)1. Organize and interpret2. Predict3. Recall4. Pretend5. Planii. Autobiographical: represents events that are meaningful to you V. Implicit Memory (unconscious)a. Jacoby and Witherspoon (1982): “Remembering Without Awareness”i. Recognition memory: amnesiacs have poor performanceii. Better performance in other tests1. Spelling, primed with homophones (grate/great)2. Word fragment completion (I-PL-C-T)VI. Infantile Amnesiaa. Lack of clearly autobiographical memoriesi. Rarely before age threeb. Explanations i. Retrieval problem/brain development1. Information encoded by memories cannot be accessed ii. Storage problem 1. Language barriers, translation errors 2. Info consolidated but forgotten3. Info not consolidatediii. Self-concept, sense of self (develops around two years)VII. What to Remembera. Memory increases in capacity through developmenti. Brain growthii. Language developmentiii. Increased attention capabilities iv. Better strategiesv. **perception of the world sensory memory working and short term memory long term
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