Unit 3 Theoretical Perspectives of Human Development

1. Unit 3Theoretical Perspectives of Human Development Mid-twentieth century Theories Contemporary Perspective

2. Overview Organismic Perspective Cognitive Development Information Processing Theory (√)

3. Information Processing Theory Developed during the mid -1950s A cognitive theory of human learning patterned after computer information processing. Uses the model of the computer to describe how the brain works. Focuses on how information is perceived, how information is stored in memory; how memories are retrieved, and then used to solve problems.

4. The Origins of Information Processing Theory • During World War II, psychologists were influenced from: • The behavior of an aircraft pilot (receiving radio instruction, reading various instruments, deciding when to fire on an enemy….) • Engineers working on communication system; how many messages can be communicated at the same time without deviating, how stimuli are transformed to one form to another. • Development of computers and the field of computer science,

5. Information Processing View of Learning Information processing theory rests on a set of 3 assumptions: Information is processed in steps or stages, which include attending to a stimulus, recognizing it, transforming it into some type of mental representation, comparing it with already stored information in memory, assigning it to meaning , and acting on it in some fashion. There are limits on how much information can be processed in each stage. The human information processing system is interactive. Information already stored in memory influences and is influenced by perception and attention, We see what our prior experiences direct us to see, in turn, what we see affects what we know.

6. Information Processing View of Learning (continued…) According to the information processing view, learning results from an interaction between an environmental stimulus (the information that is to be learned) and the learner (the one who processes, or transforms, the information) Information psychologists’ concern is what goes on in a student’s mind as a teacher demonstrates how to calculate the area of a triangle or while the student reads twenty pages of a social studies text or responds to test questions. John Bransford (1979) describes four general factors that interact with one another to affect the learning process.

7. Factors that affect Students’ Learning Process Learner characteristics – attributes like prior knowledge, attitudes, motives, and cognitive style. Some students may know quite a bit about a subject being studies, while others may know very little; some may show a strong interest in a topic others would rather study something else; Some may approach tasks impulsively and superficially while others may tackle the same tasks in a deliberate, analytical style. Learner activities – mental operations learners employ when presented with a task. Students may underline key points while they read, take notes during a lecture, rehearse information or generate visual images of things they want to remember.

8. Factors that affect Students’ Learning Process Nature of learning materials – The vast majority of classroom materials that students learn from, written and linguistic in nature, and may be long or short filled with concrete ideas or abstract ones, and organized logically and/or illogically. Nature of criterion – deals with the manner in which the learner is expected to demonstrate his or her competence. The exam (written or performance) can ask students to recall or recognize information, to apply knowledge, or to demonstrate any of several other forms of knowledge. Each outcome places different demands on a learner.

9. Control Processes Maintenance rehearsal Environmental Stimuli (Input) Elaborative rehearsal (Organization, meaningfulness) Long-term Memory (LTM) Short-term Memory (STM) Sensory Register (SR) Attention Recognition Response (Output) An Information Processing Model of Learning

12. Information-Processing Theory geography literature INPUT OUTPUT science Information is taken into brain Information is used as basis of behaviors and interactions history religion Information gets processed, analyzed, and stored until use math

13. Information Processing Model

14. Bloom’s Taxonomy From W. Huitt and J. Hummel

15. The Sensory Register and Its Control Processes The Sensory Register (SR): First memory store, hold stimuli briefly in original form for further possible processing. Its purpose is to hold information just long enough (about 1-3 seconds) for us to decide if we want to attend it further. Attention:We may process only 1/3 of the already –selected information recorded in the SR. This selective focusing on a portion of the information currently stored in the SR is called attention. Recognition:Noting key features of a stimulus and relating them to already stored information. This process is interactive, because it depends on information extracted from the stimulus itself and partly on information stored in long-term memory.

16. Short-term Memory and Its Control Process Short-term Memory(STM): STM can hold about seven unrelated bits of information for approximately 20 seconds. STM is also referred to as “working memory”, since it holds information we are currently aware of any given moment. Example: (a) Imagine that you look up and dial an unfamiliar phone number , and you receive a busy signal. If you are then distracted by something or someone else for 15 or 20 seconds, chances are, you will forget the number. (b) Visualize your STM as a filing cabinet with a capacity of seven picture that will hold their image for about 20 seconds. As new items are placed in the fike, either they are incorporated into one of the existing pictures or they push out one that was previously encoded. Therefore, one severe limitation of STM is how quickly information disappears or forgotten in the absence of further processing.

17. Short-term Memory and Its Control Process (continued….) Rehearsal : The problem of severe limitations of STM can be dealt with through rehearsal (memorize information for later use) • Maintenance Rehearsal: Also called rote rehearsal or repetition. Its only purpose is to use mental and verbal repetition to hold information in STM for immediate use. Although it is a useful and often-used ca[ability, it has no effect on long-term memory storage. • Elaborative Rehearsal: Also called elaborative encoding, consciously relates new information to knowledge already stored in LTM ( Use stored information to aid learning). For example: If you wanted to learn the lines for a part in a play, you might try to relate the dialogue and behavior of your character to similar personal experiences you remember. As you strive to memorize the lines and actions, your mental ‘elaborations’ will help you store your part in LTM so that you can retrieve it later.

18. Short-term Memory and Its Control Process (continued….) • Organization: Organizing materials reduces number of chunks, provides recall cues. Organizing several separate chunks of information into a few ‘clumps’ of information, particularly when each part of a clump helps us to remember other parts. • Meaningfulness : Effective because new information is associated with stored knowledge. (e.g. You can foster meaningful learning for students from other cultures by pointing out similarities between ideas presented in class and students’ culture-specific knowledge. You might point out that September 16th has the same significance to people of Mexican origin as July 4th has to U.S. citizens since that date obswerve Mexico’s revolution against and independence from Spain.

19. Long-term Memory Long-term memory, as its name implies, stores information for a long time. The advantage of long-term memory is that we do not have to constantly rehearse information to keep it in storage there. In addition, there is no restrictive limit on the amount of information we can store in long-term memory. If we move information to long-term memory, it stays there for a long time - perhaps permanently! To make use of this information in long term memory, we must move it back to our working memory, using a process called retrieval.

20. How Information is Organized in LTM Our knowledge is stored in LTM which is organized in terms of schemata (an abstract structure of information) When schemata are well formed and systematic, learning is enhanced. When schemata are poorly structured, learning is slow and uncertain. Forming a systematic schemata is must for LTM.

21. General Principle of Memory Attention is essential for learning Short-term memory is the bottleneck in the human memory system; too much information cannot be stored in LTM; Memory is selective, help students to be selective; The limited capacity of STM is not necessarily a bad thing; helps students to store meaningful information in LTM.

22. Integrated Model of Memory

23. Three Domains of Memory: The Information-ProcessingModel

24. Information-Processing Model:Mechanisms of Memory – Encode - process for translating sensory input into a representation that can be stored in memory – Store – moving encoded information into a memory store and maintaining the information – Retrieve – recovery of stored information from a memory store and moving it into consciousness for use in cognitive processing

25. Memory Mechanisms

26. Help Students Use learning tactic effectively • Rehearsal : repeating the name of single peace of information ( e.g. the date of a historic event or the capital of a state). However, rote rehearsal may not be very effective memory tactic for long-term storage and retrieval of information. • Mnemonic Device:Mnemonic devices are strategies to improve memory by organizing information. It isa memory –directed tactic that helps a learner transform or organize information to enhance its irretrievability. Such device ca be used to learn and remember individual items of information (a name, a fact, a date), set of information (a list of names, a list of vocabulary definition, a sequence of events), and ideas expressed in text. - Needs practice since the range of this device is from simple, easy to learn techniques to somewhat complex.

27. Help Students Use learning tactic effectively (continues…..) Following are five mnemonic devices : • Method of Loci: Visualize items to be learned stored in specific location • Peg-Word system: peg words are associated with ideas , particularly useful for learning list of items. (e.g. 1-2 buckle my shoe, 3-4 shut the door, “one is a bun”) • Word Associations: verbal associations are created for items to be learned • Acronym:word made from first letters of items to be learned. (e.g. ROYGBIV for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) • Acrostic: Sentence made up of words derived from first letters of items to be learned.

28. Help Students Use learning tactic effectively (continues…..) Self –questioning : Since students are expected to demonstrate much of what they know by answering written test questions, self-questioning can be a valuable learning tactic. Notetaking : Taking notes and reviewing notes aid retention and comprehension.