CHAPTER 8
MEMORY AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
Chapter 8: Figures & Tables
SR7e Image Figure 8.1 (A model of information
processing)
SR7e Image Figure 8.7 (Cognitive development
may resemble overlapping waves more than
a staircase leading from one stage to
another)
Learning Objectives
• How do information-processing theorists
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propose that our memory is organized?
How is information learned, remembered, and
recalled?
What is the difference between implicit and
explicit memory?
Information-Processing Approach
• Emerged amid evidence that the behaviorist
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approach could not account for performance
on all learning and memory tasks
The analogy is the computer, with its ability to
systematically convert input to output
Emphasizes basic mental processes in
attention, perception, memory, and decisionmaking
Memory Systems
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The sensory register logs input, holds an
environmental stimulus for a fraction of a second
With attention, information is moved to short-term
memory
– Holds about 7 chunks of information
– Short-term memory may be passive or active
– Active short-term memory is working memory
• Stores information while actively working on
it
Remembered information is moved to long-term
memory
Caption: A model of information processing
Memory Systems
•
Memory processes
– Encoding – getting information into the system
– Consolidation – processing and organizing
information in a form suitable for long-term storage
• Consolidation transforms a sensory-perceptual
experience into a long-lasting memory trace
– Facilitated by sleep
– Storage – holding information in a long-term
memory store
• A constructive process, not a static recording
– Retrieval – information is obtained from long-term
memory
Memory Systems
•
Retrieval can be accomplished in various ways
– Recognition memory – choose from among the
options
• Example: a multiple-choice question on an exam
– Recall memory – active retrieval without the aid of
cues to remember
• Example: “How did Atkinson and Shiffrin describe
the human information-processing system?”
– Cued recall memory – retrieval is facilitated by a hint
or a cue
• Example: “How did Atkinson and Shiffrin describe
the movement of information from one stage to
the next in their three-stage model of information
processing?”
Implicit and Explicit Memory
• Two distinct components of long-term
memory – implicit and explicit – respond
differently depending upon the nature of the
task
– Implicit memory (procedural memory)
occurs unintentionally, automatically, and
without awareness
• Example: how to ride a bicycle
– Remains intact and capacity does not
change over the lifespan
Implicit and Explicit Memory
– Explicit memory (declarative memory) involves
deliberate, effortful recollection
• Includes two forms
– Semantic – memory for general facts
– Episodic – memory for specific
experiences
• Damage to the medial temporal brain
structures can impair creation of episodic
memories
• Capacity of explicit memory increases from
infancy to adulthood
Problem-Solving
• Problem-solving is using the information•
processing system to reach a goal or make a
decision
Problem-solving uses executive control
processes in planning and monitoring
cognition
– Selection
– Organization
– Manipulation
– Interpretation of information
Learning Objectives
• How do researchers assess infant memory?
• What information can infants typically
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remember?
What are the limitations of infants’ memory?
The Infant – Memory
• Researchers have used infants’ capacity for
imitation to assess their memory capabilities
– Imitation
• Infants have been observed sticking out
their tongues and moving their mouths in
ways consistent with a model
• Infants as young as 6 months display
deferred imitation, the ability to imitate a
novel act after a delay
The Infant – Memory
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Researchers have used infants’ capacity for
habituation to assess their memory capabilities
– Habituation
• Learning not to respond to a stimulus, such
as eventually not hearing the drip of a leaky
faucet
• From birth, humans habituate to repeatedlypresented lights, sounds, smells
• Newborns are capable of recognition
memory and prefer a new stimulus to a
familiar one
The Infant – Memory
•
Researchers have used infants’ capacity for operant
conditioning to assess their memory capabilities
– Operant conditioning
• Rovee-Collier and colleagues tied a ribbon to
infants’ ankles and to mobiles
– The infants quickly learned that leg kicking
brought about the positively reinforcing
consequence of a jiggling mobile
– Also used cued recall: 2-4 weeks later,
infants who were shown the mobile kicked
vigorously when the ribbon was attached to
their ankles
– Demonstrated that early memories are cuedependent and context-specific
The Infant – Recall
• As infants age, they demonstrate recall or
deferred imitation over longer periods
– Infants as young as 6 months can imitate
novel behaviors after a 24-hour delay
– By age 2, events can be recalled for
months and recall is less cue-dependent
– Language helps memory performance
• By age 2, infants have become verbal
and can use words to reconstruct events
that happened months earlier
The Infant – Recall and Problem-Solving
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As infants age, they demonstrate recall or
deferred imitation over longer periods
– Infants as young as 6 months can imitate novel
behaviors after a 24-hour delay
– By age 2, events can be recalled for months
and recall is less cue-dependent
– Language helps memory performance
By 14 months, infants have learned that adults
can help them solve problems
– Infants pay attention to cues provided by adults
and will solicit help from adults by pointing, etc.
Learning Objectives
• What are the four major hypotheses about
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why memory improves during childhood?
What evidence supports each hypothesis?
The Child – Explaining Memory
Development
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Four major hypotheses improvements in learning and
memory during childhood
– Changes in basic capacities
• Neural advances in the brain permit more
working memory space and faster processing
of information
– Changes in memory strategies
• Older children use effective strategies for
storing and retrieving information
– Increased knowledge about memory
• Older children know more about their memory
– Increased knowledge about the world
• Material to be learned is more familiar and
familiar material is easier to learn
The Child – Explaining Memory
Development
• Across childhood and into adolescence, there
are improvements in short-term or working
memory
– There are not improvements in the basic
capacities of long-term memory or the
sensory register
– Improvements in the capacity of short-term
memory between ages 6-7 and ages 12-13
• Corresponds to maturation of the
hippocampus and other parts of the brain
involved in consolidation of memory
The Child – Explaining Memory
Development
•
Across childhood and into adolescence there are
improvements in short-term, or working memory
– The speed and efficiency of mental processing
in short-term memory improves with age
• Allows simultaneous mental operations
• Basic mental processes become automatic,
which frees working memory for other
purposes
• Greater knowledge of a domain (e.g., math)
increases the speed with which new, related
information can be processed
• Changes correspond to maturation of the
frontal lobes of the brain
The Child – Explaining Memory
Development
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Memory or encoding strategies develop in predictable
order during childhood
Perseveration errors decline by age 4
– Continued use of a strategy that was successful in
the past despite the strategy’s current lack of
success
Children increase their use of rehearsal
– Repeating items to be learned and remembered
Children master organization later in childhood
– Classifying items into meaningful groups
Elaboration is the last strategy to develop
– Actively creating meaningful links between items to
be remembered
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The Child – Explaining Memory
Development
According to Miller and colleagues, children
typically progress through four phases on the way
to successful strategy use
– Initially, children have a mediation deficiency –
they cannot spontaneously use or benefit from
strategies
– Then production deficiency occurs – children
can use strategies they are taught but cannot
produce them on their own
– Then there is utilization deficiency, in which
children produce a strategy, but its use does
not benefit task performance
– In the final stage, children can produce and
benefit from using a memory strategy
The Child – Explaining Memory
Development
• During childhood, there are improvements in
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metacognition
– Knowledge of the human mind and of the
range of cognitive processes
Children with greater metamemory awareness
demonstrate better memory ability
– Knowledge of memory and understanding
how to monitor and regulate memory
processes
The Child – Explaining Memory
Development
• Children’s knowledge of a content area – their
knowledge base – affects learning and
memory performance
– Expertise allows children to form more and
larger mental chunks, which allows them to
remember more
The Child – Explaining Memory
Development
• Conclusions about the development of
learning and memory in childhood
– Older children are faster information
processors and can juggle more information
in working memory
• Maturation of the nervous system leads
to improvements in consolidation of
memories
• Older and younger children, however, do
not differ in terms of sensory register or
long-term memory capacity
The Child – Explaining Memory
Development
• Conclusions
– Older children use more effective memory
strategies in encoding and retrieving
information
– Acquisition of memory strategies reflects
qualitative rather than quantitative changes
– Older children know more about memory;
good metamemory may help children
choose more appropriate strategies and
control and monitor learning more effectively
The Child – Explaining Memory
Development
– Older children know more in general, and
their larger knowledge base improves their
ability to learn and remember
• A richer knowledge base allows faster
and more efficient processing of
information related to the domain of
knowledge
Learning Objectives
• When do autobiographical memories begin,
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and what possible explanations can account
for childhood amnesia?
How do scripts influence memory?
How do problem-solving capacities change
during childhood?
What explanation does Siegler propose for
changes in problem-solving?
Autobiographical Memories
• Older children and adults have childhood or
infantile amnesia; few autobiographical
memories from their first years of life
– Infants and toddlers may not have enough
space in working memory to hold multiple
pieces of information needed to encode
and consolidate a memory about an event
– May lack sufficient language skills
– Early verbatim memories are unstable and
likely to be lost
Autobiographical Memories – Scripts
• Children construct scripts – general event
representations (GERs) – of routine activities
– Represent the typical sequence and guide
future behaviors
• Children as young as 3 years use scripts to
report familiar events
– Report what happens in general, rather
than exactly what occurred during a
specific event
Autobiographical Memories – Eyewitness
Memory
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Children’s scripts affect their memory for future
events as well as their recollection of past events
– Has implications for eyewitness memory
• Children can demonstrate accurate recall
when asked clear and unbiased questions
• Research has demonstrated that children’s
memory of past events can be affected by
prompting, by directed questions, and by
repeated questioning
Problem-Solving
• Siegler proposed that children’s problemsolving uses a rule assessment approach
– Children take in information about a
problem and formulate rules to account for
the information
• Children’s selection and use of problem-
solving strategies becomes more efficient
– Through a natural selection process, the
most adaptive ways of thinking survive
Problem-Solving
• Siegler proposed that children’s problemsolving develops in overlapping waves
– Overlapping waves theory – “process of
variability, choice, and change”
• Knowing and using a variety of
strategies, becoming increasingly
selective with experience about which
strategy to use, and changing/adding
strategies as needed
Caption: Cognitive development may resemble
overlapping waves more than a staircase
leading from one stage to another
Learning Objective
• What developments occur in adolescents’
basic capacities, learning and memory
strategies, and metacognition?
The Adolescent – Strategies
• New strategies emerge
– Elaboration
– Strategies such as note-taking that are
relevant to school learning
• Strategies are used deliberately and
selectively
• Become better at moving irrelevant
information from working memory so that it
doesn’t interfere with task performance
The Adolescent – Basic Capacities
• Adolescents can perform cognitive operations
more quickly than children do
– Maturational changes in the brain allow
adolescents to process information more
quickly and to simultaneously process more
chunks of information
The Adolescent – Metamemory and
Knowledge Base
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The knowledge base continues to expand during
adolescence – adolescents perform better because
they know more
Metamemory and metacognition improve
• Can tailor reading strategies to different purposes
(skimming vs. studying)
• Strategy of elaboration is recognized as more
effective than rote repetition
• Can monitor whether study time is sufficient
– Adolescent girls use more metacognitive
strategies than boys
– Students from higher SES backgrounds use
more metacognitive strategies than lower SES
peers
Learning Objectives
• In what ways do memory and cognition
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change during adulthood?
What factors help explain the declines in
abilities during older adulthood?
What can be done to minimize losses with
age?
How are problem-solving skills affected by
aging?
The Adult – Developing Expertise
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Adults often function best cognitively in domains in
which they have expertise
– Takes about 10 years to become an expert and
to build a rich, well-organized knowledge base
• The expert knows more and thinks more
effectively than a non-expert
– Remembers more new information
– Able to solve problems effectively and
efficiently
Expertise can compensate to some extent for agerelated losses in information-processing capacities
The Adult – Autobiographical Memory
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Bauer identified four factors that may influence
autobiographical memories
– Personal significance of an event has almost no
effect on one’s ability to later recall the event
– Greater distinctness or uniqueness of an event
is consistently associated with better recall
– Emotional intensity: highly negative or highly
positive emotions are recalled better than
events experienced in the context of more
neutral emotions
– Life phase: the best recall of memories is from
the recent past and from adolescence and early
adulthood (ages 15-25)
The Adult – Memory and Aging
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Older adults learn new material more slowly, may
learn it less well, and may remember less
But our knowledge about adult memory and
aging is qualified
– Research is based on cross-sectional studies
– Declines typically are not noticeable until the
70s
– Difficulties are most noticeable and most
severe among the oldest persons
– Not all people experience difficulties
– Not all kinds of memory tasks cause difficulty
The Adult – Memory and Aging
• Older adults perform less well when their
memory is time-tested
• Older adults perform less well when material
to be learned is unfamiliar or cannot be linked
to existing knowledge (it is meaningless)
• Older adults perform significantly worse in
laboratory contexts and often perform better
in naturalistic contexts
The Adult – Memory and Aging
• Older adults are likely to be more deficient on
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tasks requiring recall than on tasks requiring
only recognition
– Problem with retrieval
Older adults have more trouble with explicit
memory tasks that require mental effort than
with implicit memory tasks that involve more
automatic mental processes
– Retain fairly good semantic memory but
show steady declines in episodic memory
The Adult – Explaining Declines in Old Age
• Older adults’ memory problems are not
caused by deficiencies in their knowledge
base
• Metamemory is largely intact across the
lifespan, but older adults express more
negative beliefs about their memory skills
than do younger adults
– Possible influence of culture and its views
of aging upon performance
The Adult – Explaining Declines in Old Age
• Many older adults do not spontaneously use
memory strategies (organization, elaboration)
• However, the biggest problem is with effective
retrieval, not with the original encoding of an
event
– Illustrated by “tip-of-the-tongue” episodes in
which something is known but cannot be
retrieved
The Adult – Explaining Declines in Old Age
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Changes in basic processing capacities may
explain why older adults fail to use effective
memory and retrieval strategies
– Decline in the capacity to use working memory
to operate actively and simultaneously on
multiple pieces of information
– May have more trouble ignoring irrelevant task
information
Limitations in working memory capacity most likely
are rooted in neural transmission both early and
late in life
The Adult – Explaining Declines in Old Age
• Older adults experience declines in sensory
abilities
– Visual and auditory skills often are better
predictors than processing speed of
cognition among older adults
The Adult – Explaining Declines in Old Age
• Contextual theorists emphasize that
performance on learning and memory tasks is
the product of interaction among
– Characteristics of the learner
• Education, IQ, health, lifestyle
– Characteristics of the task or situation
– Characteristics of the broader environment,
including culture, in which a task is
performed
The Adult – Problem-Solving and Aging
• Older adults are capable of effective problemsolving strategies but do not use them in
some contexts (laboratory or unfamiliar task)
• Older adults can use experience to solve
meaningful problems
• However, ultimately declines in basic
capacities may limit the problem-solving
capacity of many elderly adults in real life, as
well as in laboratory conditions
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The Adult – Selection, Optimization, and
Compensation
The selection, optimization, and
compensation (SOC) framework may explain
how older adults cope with and compensate
for diminishing cognitive resources
– Selection – determine the skills that are
most useful
– Optimization – make efforts to maintain
and strengthen those most useful skills
– Compensation – find ways to make up for
(compensate) for cognitive deficits