Information Processing refers to
what human attributes?
• Refers to mental efficiency of the whole system.
• Reaction time tests (some found on Internet)
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/
sheep/
• Short term memory tasks (e.g. digit span).
• Working memory (input is combined with LTM
data, so the mind has to ‘work’).
• Measures of memory retention (over time).
• Measures of reading, comprehension, problem
solving, etc.
• In short, all cognitive activity involves processing
information
Sensory memory
• How many ball passes? Two balls are in play.
• Try to count them (video goes 20 seconds)
• http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/15.html
Another demonstration of
attentional effects
• Magician’s stock in trade is to control your
attention.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v91nKja
2Qw4
• (For entertainment value, see Dr
Wiseman’s other videos on his Quirkology
website)
The Information Processing
system
Executive Control Processes
Learn
Sensory Perception
Working
Memory
Memory
Attention
Long-term
memory
Retrieve
Decision
making
Work Space Temporary Storage
Permanent Storage
What do such effects show?
• Attention is a limited resource.
• Executive control (your current goal)
overides sensory input.
• Eyewitness testimony is often poor: Much
goes on without your noticing.
• The popular fallacy of multi-tasking.
(Abysmal history of such effects, including
the Mozart Effect, and the Receptionist
Effect).
Memory feats
• It takes 25 minutes, but go test yourself on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/
memory/index.shtml.
• So, if humans are so limited in mental capacities, what
accounts for extra-ordinary feats?
• There are many well documented cases of incredible
memory skills.
• Memory skills via highly sophisticated chunking
strategies, e.g. DD and SF. These students were
Physical Education students, using sports information to
enhance their digit span. SF got to 79, then a year later
DD went up to 119.
Taken from DD’s reports
• …4 2 0 7 9 9 8 1 0 6 9 3 8….
• “then 420 was a mile, I said a 4:20 flat, a
good high school mile”
• “799, I said 79 was an age, almost eighty”
• 810 “And 8:10 was a two mile. I said a
really fast two mile”.
• 6938 “Then 6938 was a ten mile, and I
said it was up there, it was a really slow
ten mile”
Exceptional memory feats 1
Memory skills via highly sophisticated
chunking strategies, e.g. DD and SF.
• Their ‘secret’ lies in encoding: Using their
knowledge as an associative aid.
• It took a year’s practice.
• After such digit skills developed, did STM
improve on other tasks? Answer: NO. Memory
for lists of words remained at 9 to 10.
• In fact their short term memory capacity was
unchanged.
Exceptional memory feats 2
• Go onto Youtube and search “memory
mnemonic”, There are several dozen excellent
films (Greg’s favourite is Derren Brown). Spend
a couple of hours watching these.
• All cases based on practice of domain related
skills. You begin with good healthy STM, yes,
but then develop strategies.
• None of this needs intelligence. Memory
champions do not need giant brains. They
devote time to honing their skills, and are driven
by motives such as competition and goals.
(Many hundreds of hours needed. It’s the time
taken to develop skills, that is ‘hidden’))
BASIC STRATEGIES IN MEMORY
•
•
•
•
•
•
Chunking
Rehearsal (recitation)
Imagery
Mnemonics (any device that helps)
Elaboration
To remember, use CRIME.
Chunking (or grouping)
• The mind takes “bites” out of the input:
• Examples:
• (a) chess champion breaks the game into seven
known units, within his/her perception.
• (b) The digit span experts DD and SF grouped the
numbers, rather than treat them as isolated units.
• (c) When you meet people you naturally group
people according to their partners, or family group
(you group brothers, sisters, etc).
Rehearsal
Most elementary strategy since it uses your mind’s
natural 1.5 second buffer.
Generally verbal (but not necessarily). Most brains
will try to encode a visual input to a verbal code.
(Eg, when watching the ball passes, your brain
was counting in words).
It is quite a good way to store small volume items.
Do not regard this as ‘learning by rote’ as in fact
there is no such capability within the human
brain. (A common fallacy. Computers might
learn by rote, but the human brain cannot).
When spoken aloud, we call it recitation, rather
than rehearsal which we think of as the inner
response.
Four stimulus flash cards:
(Eg card stack as shown by teacher)
The preschooler may verbalise each when
in sight (“cat”, “tree”, etc). Each card is
seen briefly, so the frame skill involves
incorporating the one in sight with ones
that are now gone from view.
Rehearsal frames: Developmental findings
• Memory test using flash cards, one at a time.
The typical preschooler looks, will label the card,
but does not mentally rehearse.
• The typical 6 year old, looks, and mentally
rehearses the card in front of her.
• The 8 year old, however, rehearses the present
plus past cards. The rehearsal frame might be of
3 to 4 items.
• By about 10, the notion of 2 frames may emerge
• In fact our rehearsal abilities will increase even
through adolescence. So saying it is ‘simple’ or
‘rote’ does this skill quite a disservice.
IMAGERY: Pictures within the mind
• This appears to be a natural encoding
strategy linked to the visual system.
• But has been ‘controversial’ in that some
people report they use it a lot, but others
seem mystified as to whether or not they
‘see’ things.
• Lab tests indicate there really is type of
‘sketch pad’ in the brain, which stores nonverbal inputs such as locations, shapes,
positions, etc.
Imagery
• Imagine: It’s a lovely sunny day. A walk in
the park. Trees are beautiful. So are
those flowers on the ground…So..?
• Imagine: Your house, what it looks
like…Just where are you now standing?
• Close you eyes and tell us how many……
Will you use your sketch pad?
• Try looking at this page for 30 secs, then
draw the shapes on paper
Imagery: Extra-ordinary
performance
• Stephen Wiltshire: “The human
camera”.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAf
aM_CBvP8&feature=related.
What is mental elaboration?
• This means to add to the input, in any way, but
in the human brain, it is mainly a verbal process.
• Last week I said “You will recall perhaps 20% of
lecture content” (stimulus input)
• In your brain “Am I wasting my time here?”
• Note how your response adds to the stimulus, by
way of an elaboration.
• It is what you do. It is not in the stimulus.
• To elaborate upon an input is the most effective
learning strategy we have. But most effective of
all is when we ask ourselves a question of the
stimulus, and are able to answer it, ourselves.
Mnemonics
• Term “mnemonic” in general means that
which assists memory, from STM to LTM.
• But, often used to refer to specific devices (or
tricks) that work well, in sense of helping
recall of specific pieces of information such
as colours of rainbow, value of pi, states of
Australia, music notation, chemical formulae.
• Especially popular use by medical students,
• http://www.medicalmnemonics.com/
A mnemonic from maths
• How I wish I could calculate pi easily.
• 3.1415926
Experienced teachers do use
mnemonics
• Teachers develop their own mnemonics within
their teaching repertoire (pp286-287).
• I watched a special education teacher help child
get his essay writing skills up by calling out the
COPS. (May be called an acronym)
• Capitols, Organisation, Punctuation, and
Spelling. (i.e. child learns to self-check these).
• Other teachers have variations on these, and will
often develop there own.
Mnemonics:
(As noted in your textbook, pp 286-287)
•
•
•
•
•
Loci method
Peg type mnemonics
Acronyms
Chain mnemonics
Keyword mnemonics
A question.
• So what does CRIME now suggest to
you?
What strategies are most effective?
• This is an impossible question as we have
different strategies for different tasks.
• Also strategies can only become effective after
much practice.
• However, rehearsal is fine for small discrete
units. But this can reach a limit fairly quickly. So
more effective ones get called in to assist.
• Most effective ones are based upon elaboration
and self-questioning. Why, because it forces the
mind to relate the new input to meaningfulness
and what you know already. (They use the prior
knowledge factor).
Concept of strategy
• There are many different strategies (memory,
scanning, finding things, listening, etc).
• Reduces cognitive load.
• Can be general, or can be highly specific.
• Gaol oriented, with goal in future.
• Developmental trends (better with age)
• Individuals differ (often quite dramatically)
• Remarkably hard to acquire.
Can we teach strategies?
• Yes, there is a large literature on teaching
strategies successfully.
• But the length of time needed is always in the
hours. You need to practice the new skill in at
least 3 new situations.
• Brief training (or just information giving) fails
absolutely.
• Brief training fails as the strategy itself imposes
a heavy load. Thus, when the going is difficult
the new strategy gets abandoned. The mind will
revert back to what it did before. This effect is
known by two names, “regression” (to go back),
and also “proactive interference” ( your old
knowledge is still there, and so reasserts itself).
In sum
• The world is complex,
and every child needs
to develop strong
mental strategies that
will allow learning to
proceed with facility,
success, and low
stress.
• But developing good
strategies does not come
quickly.
• Even once strategies are
acquired, children’s
performance will improve
only gradually.
• There is another factor in
the story. This is the role
of knowledge, and that is
where we go next week.