Human
Information
Processing
System
DR. NEIL H. SCHWARTZ
PSY 353
Internal Cognitive Environme nt
Long Term Store
Short Term Sto re
Encoding
Retrieval
Sensory Register
External Environment
Sensory Register
Purpose
Capacity
~On ave. about 500 msec (1/2 second).
~No difference between 5 year olds & adults at 50 msec.
~By 100 msec differences between children and adults
emerge and widen up to 1,000 msec (1 sec).
The difference is explained by children’s and adult’s gradually
increasing ability to move stimuli into Short term store by
applying: attention and strategies
Short Term Store
Purpose
We apply strategies (control processes) to
encode and retrieve information.
Capacity
7 +/2 and 30 seconds
"All the interesting
developmental action
is in the short term
store."
A Closer Look at Short Term
Memory
The study of short-term memory has revealed several
things about what it is children can do with their
memory, and how they are different, and in some
ways the same as adults.
When digits are used memory span looks different
for different ages:

2 year olds = 2

5 year olds = 4

7 year olds = 5

9 year olds = 6
So, maturational differences in
CAPACITY are small, as
children get older.
But, maturational differences in
SPEED of processing are much
more substantial.
Thus, children get faster at processing
as they get older.
Speed of processing accounts best for age differences in
memory span-- both the speed at which a child can identify
something as known to them and the speed at which the child
can articulate those items.

Thus, short term memory gets faster and more
efficient for children when items become more
familiar to them and they can use their language
better to say things faster.

In fact, when a child (or adult) has some prior
knowledge of material to be remembered,
processing is much much faster.
Using the Short term Store
Internal Cognitive Environment
There is a distinction
we need to make
about the short
term store…..
Sometimes, it is
referred to as…
Working Memory
Long Term Store
Short Term Store
Encoding
Retrieval
Sensory Register
External Environment
Short term memory is sometimes called working memory.
But, the two need to be distinguished from one another.

Short-term memory refers to the capacity of this part of
the memory system to hold things without any use of
controlled processes (like strategies or special attention)

Working memory refers to a person's conscious effort to
act on information in the STM store-- to transform it,by
applying special attention and using strategies to hold it
there longer and get it into long-term memory
STM versus Working Memory

There is little difference among children and
adults in terms of short-term memory
capacity, but there is considerable difference
between children as they get older (and
children and adults) in their capacity to use
their STM-- that is, differences in working
memory.

A child's speed and efficiency of processing
is accounted for by differences with which a
child can use his or her working memory.
Let’s take a closer look at speed and
efficiency of Processing...
Speed of Processing
1. Older children have more processing
resources available to them for executing
cognitive operations than do younger children.
Thus, young children need more time and use up more working
memory space to process information (either to remember it,
or reason with, or solve problems with it, etc.).
This means young children have to "think"more and are slower
when trying to remember things or solve problems.
Speed of Processing
2. As children get older, they have more experience
with things making some information more familiar
than others. The more familiar information, the
faster it is processed.
Thus, older children are faster at processing
most information because they are either more
familiar with it or they can use familiar related
information they already have, to help them
process new unfamiliar information.
Speed of Processing
3. As children get older they get faster at processing
information because their neurological system
matures.
a. They have more links between neurons,
and thus more neural pathways to use to link
familiar information with new information.
b. Their neurons are gradually becoming more
myelinated so they transmit electrochemical
impulses faster.
Thus, the more information exposure children
have the more dendritic links neurons make
between each other, and the faster children
can process information.
Differences in the memory of children is not only
accounted for by speed, but also accounted for
by the efficiency with which the children can
process information.
Efficiency of Processing
1. Children, as they get older, use less mental
effort to process things cognitively because
they get more adept at applying and using
strategies to acquire information.
Thus, speed increases because children get
practiced in knowing which strategies are
easiest to use and which ones are most
helpful.
Efficiency of Processing
2. Case, in a theory of memory, made a distinction
between storage space and operating space-- the
same one we made earlier today between STM and
Working Memory
He said that….

Storage Space + Operating Space = Total Processing Space

Storage space is the mental space a person has available
for storing information.

Operating space is the mental space a person has available
to use for executing operations (that is, processing).
The point is…
As children get older they process information
more efficiently because strategies are
practiced and become mastered, requiring
less operating space, and producing more
storage space. More storage space means a
person can hold more things in mind to be
able to process them. More things makes
thinking capacity potentially more complex ,
more elaborate, and richer.
We have been talking about cognitive processing-- the
speed of processing and the efficiency of processing.
But, just what is "processing"?

Processing is the use of strategies people employ to understand, remember
and solve problems.
…..Next, we will take a look at cognitive strategies…….
Cognitive Strategies Defined
Cognitive strategies = are goal directed
operations used to aid task performance.
 They are deliberately implemented and
potentially available to consciousness.
 They are often controlled processes, that
over time and use become automated.
 Examples of strategies are: 1) rehearsal, 2)
organization, 3)chunking, 4) imagery, 5)
self-checking or self-monitoring(a
metacognitive strategy).

Cognitive Strategies continued

There are strategies for reading, arithmetic, fixing a bike or a
car, getting someone to like you, explaining things to people
so they understand.
Can you describe a strategy you have
for something?
The Development of
Cognitive Strategy Use

Children develop in their use of strategies, but in an interesting way.

Take a look at the following three items…..

1. At first, children, when they are
young, show what is called a mediational
deficiency.a. A mediational deficiency is
when a child does not spontaneously
generate a strategy to help solve a task and
doesn't make use of that are given to them.
They don't have the mental capacity use
them.

2. Then, children, as they get older, show
what is called a production deficiency. a.
A production deficiency is when a child,
when given a strategy, will make use of the
strategy, but will not spontaneously
produce them. That is, they have the
mental capacity to use a strategy, but do
not produce them.

3. Finally, children, as they get older still, will both produce
and use strategies on their own.
The question is: What are the
production deficient children
doing?


They are producing strategies, but just not
very efficient or effective ones. And,
sometimes, they are just downright primitive .
For example, they will simply "try hard".
They also show what is called a utilization
deficiency. a. A utilization strategy refers to
the fact that young children will be able to use
strategies, whether primitive or not,
sometimes as effectively as older kids, but
will experience no benefit from them in
performance.
The question is: Why no benefit?


The execution of a strategy requires heaps of mental
effort; and, young children do not have enough
information processing resources to execute the
strategy and still perform other aspects of the task at
hand.
a. The condition is analogous to a computer without
enough RAM to run itself and a program at the same
time. b. Since strategies are effortful, young children
just don't have the resources in their information
processing systems to: (a) bring them up, (b) make
use of them, and (c) do the steps of the task at hand,
all at the same time. Older children do.
Finally,
some summary statements...
1. Strategy use takes effort.
2. Since young children process information less
efficiently, it makes them less likely to use
strategies spontaneously and to benefit from
them if they do.
3. As children get older, they execute more
strategies and use them with greater
effectiveness, because their brains have matured
and they can cognitively process more efficiently.
4. When older children use strategies, they:
a. have multiple strategies available to them in
their repertoire;
b. these strategies compete with each other;
c. early on in development, the easiest
simplest strategies will win most of the time;
d. later in development, with maturation
and practice, children will use more
effortful and efficient strategies, often
in parallel (that is, together).
5. Part of the reason, strategy gets more efficient,
is because:
the amount of knowledge a person already has
plays a strong role in how new information is
processed.