Information Processing

1
Information Processing

• Cognitive Views of Learning and Definitions of
  Knowledge

2
Cognitive View of Learning

• Cognitive psychologists believe that
• Mental processes exist
• Mental processes can be studied scientifically
• Humans are active participants in their own acts
  of cognition

3
Comparing two perspectives

• Behavioral Psychology
• What is learned? Behaviors
• Why is reinforcement important? Reinforcement
  strengthens behavior.
  
• Learners respond to environmental stimuli
• Knowledge is acquired
• Most study is done on animals

• Cognitive Psychology
• What is learned? Knowledge
• Why is reinforcement important? Reinforcement is
  a source of feedback.
  
• Learners initiate learning
• Knowledge is constructed
• Study is done on both animals and people

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PRIOR Knowledge

• For cognitive psychologists, one of the most
  important elements in the learning process is
  what learners bring to the learning situation.
  
• Alexander (1996) indicates that what we already
  know is a scaffold that supports the construction
  of all future learning.
  
• Dochy, Segers, and Buehl (1999) indicate that
  prior knowledge determines what we will pay
  attention to, perceive, learn, and forget when
  learning new content.
• In a research investigation, Recht and Leslie
  (1988) studied learners who had high and low
  baseball knowledge and who were either good or
  bad readers. The findings indicated that bad
  readers with high baseball knowledge performed
  better than good readers with low baseball
  knowledge on outcome measures.
• Consider the following what do such findings
  mean to teachers?
  
• What are some strategies that teachers could use
  to address prior knowledge in the learning
  environments they design?

5
Kinds of Knowledge

• General knowledge information that you can use
  in many areas or in many ways for many purposes
  (measuring using the metric system)
  
• Domain-specific knowledge information that is
  useful to a particular situation or that applies
  to one specific topic (computing a correlation)
  
• Declarative knowledge factual knowledge
  knowing that
  
• Procedural knowledge knowledge of how do do
  something or how to perform a task knowing how
  
• Conditional knowledge knowing when and why to
  use either declarative or procedural knowledge
  knowing when and why (to solve math problems,
  you need to know when to apply one procedure and
  when to apply another)

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Kinds of Knowledge
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Information Processing

• Information Processing involves
• Gathering information and organizing it in
  relation to what you already know (encoding)
  
• Holding information (storage)
• Getting at information when needed (retrieval)
• The whole system is guided by control processes
  that determine how and when information will flow
  through the system
  
• The following slide provides a visual of the
  Information Processing Model
  

8
Information Processing Model
9
Information Processing

• Sensory Memory

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Sensory Memory

• First, it is important to know that sensory
  information (sights, sounds, smells) is held very
  briefly in memory
  
• Sensory memory is the initial processing that
  transforms sensory stimuli into information that
  we can make sense of
  
• The capacity of sensory memory is LARGE, but the
  duration is very short (1-3 seconds)
  
• Perception is the process of both detecting a
  stimulus and assigning meaning to it.
  
• People organize sensory information into patterns
  or relationships instead of perceiving bits and
  pieces of unrelated information, we perceive
  organized, meaningful wholes.
• The following slides describing some Gestalt
  principles will further explain this.

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Gestalt Principles - Similarity
When things share visual characteristics such as
shape, size, color, texture, value or orientatio
n we see them as belonging together.
For example, in the visual on the left, the two
filled lines give your eyes the impression of tw
o horizontal lines, even though all the circles
are equidistant from each other. And, in the
example to your right, the larger circles appear
to belong together because of the similarity in
size.
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Gestalt Principle - Closure
Closure occurs when an object is incomplete or a
space is not completely enclosed. If
enough of the shape is indicated, people perceive
the whole by filling in the missing information.
Although the panda above is not complete, enough
is present for the eye to complete the shape.
When the viewer's perception completes a shape,
closure occurs. The principle of closure applie
s when we tend to see complete figures even when
part of the information is missing. For example,
in the second image, we see three black circles
covered by a white triangle. We react to pattern
s that are familiar, even though we often receive
incomplete information. In the final example
, we see a circle, though it is not complete.
13
Getalt Principle Figure/Ground
The eye differentiates an object form its
surrounding area. A form, silhouette, or
shape is naturrally perceived as figure (object),
while the surrounding area is
perceived as ground (background).
In the first image, the figure and ground relati
onships change as the eye perceives
the form of a shade or the silhouette of a face.
Look carefully at the M.C. Escher print. Do you
see the white horses and riders?
Now look for the black horses and riders!
What do you see in the final image? An old lady
? A young woman? Can you see both?
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Attention

• We do not bring everything into working memory
  when we first encounter new information. As
  mentioned previously we select the stimuli we
  will attend to. Again, what we pay attention to
  is guided by what we already know and what we
  think we need to know. Consider, then, the
  following questions
• What should teachers do to address the importance
  of attention at the beginning of a lesson?
  
• How should textbooks and readings and handouts be
  organized? What strategies can be used?
  
• What other strategies can be used in classes?
  Think about and come up with specific examples.
  

15
Information Processing

• Working and Short-term Memory

16
Working Memory

• Working memory holds the information that you are
  focusing on in a given moment (the information
  you are working on). It is a component of the
  memory system that holds information for about 20
  seconds.
• It is a temporary storage of information that is
  at the time being processed
  
• The working memory capacity is limited. Youve
  probably heard that the capacity of short-term
  memory, for example, is 7 /1 2 (that is, we can
  hold 5-9 items in this memory storage system at
  once).
• We can use strategies like chunking to overcome
  this limitation, but usually 5-9 holds true in
  everyday life. What is chunking? Chunking is
  putting a set of items together into one. So,
  for example, when we remember phone numbers, we
  chunk the area code into one number and the
  second set of three digits into another number.
  That way, we can remember a 10-digit phone number
  more easily.

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Working Memory

• Within working memory, there are several
  constructs of interest.
  
• The Central Executive is the part of working
  memory that directs attention, makes plans,
  retrieves, and integrates, directing attention to
  relevant information and suppressing information
  that is irrelevant. It helps in coordinating
  cognitive processes when more than one task must
  be done at the same time.
• The Phonological Loop is the where we store
  verbal and audio information. The amount of
  information that we can store in the phonological
  loop is about the same as what we can rehearse,
  by saying it to ourselves, for 1.5 to 2 seconds.
  Even very few bits of information can be too much
  for us to remember if the information is complex
  or unfamiliar. So, for example, if you have to
  deal with an unfamiliar phone system, such as one
  in another country, you may not be able to
  remember a 10-digit phone number because the
  central executive system may compete with your
  phonological loop.
• The Visuaspatial Sketchpad is a system for
  holding visual and spatial information and is
  very similar to the phonological loop.
  
• It is possible for us to use both the
  phonological loop and the visuaspatial sketchpad
  at the same time, but they with both be slowed
  down.

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Working Memory

• As a brief overview, generally speaking, the
  duration of working memory is very short (about
  5-20 seconds unless you are rehearsing the
  information or processing it in some other way).
• You must keep information activated in order to
  retain it in working memory. Activation is high
  as long as you are focusing on the information,
  but as soon as your attention shifts away,
  information decays or fades quickly from working
  memory.
• There are a number of ways we can retain
  information in working memory
  
• Maintenance rehearsal is when you keep repeating
  information to yourself
  
• Elaborative rehearsal is when you keep
  information in working memory by associating it
  with something else you already know (i.e.,
  something in long term memory). This association
  helps move the information to long term memory.
• Chunking is when you group individual bits of
  information into meaningful larger units.
  
• Forgetting is when information is lost through
  interference or decay.
  
• Interference can occur when the processing of new
  information gets confused with old information.
  
• Decay is the weakening and fading of memories
  that occurs with the passage of time. If you
  dont continue to pay attention to the
  information, it decays (weakens) and finally
  drops so low that the information cannot be
  retrieved.
• Consider the following question why might
  forgetting sometimes be useful?
  
• What would happen, for example, if you overloaded
  your working memory?

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Information Processing

• Long-term Memory

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Long-term Memory

• Long term memory is the permanent store of
  knowledge. In order to move information to
  long-term memory, we have to put forward a lot of
  effort.
• Access to information in working memory is
  immediate access to information in long term
  memory requires time and effort
  
• Recent studies suggest that information is stored
  in long term memory either in visual images or in
  verbal units, or both. Those who believe this to
  be true suggest that information that is coded
  both visually and verbally is easiest to learn.
  Such theorists would believe that illustrations
  and animations are helpful in improving
  understanding.
• Other theorists posit that the brain is not large
  enough to store all the images we have seen or
  can imagine images must be stored as verbal cues
  and translated into visual information when an
  image is needed.
• Regardless of which of these are true, as
  teachers, we must find ways to help our students
  move new information to long-term memory.
  
• What are some ways you can think of to help
  students move new information to long-term
  memory?
  
• The chart on the following page provides a
  comparison of long-term memory with working
  memory.
  

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Capacity, Duration, and Contents of Long Term
Memory

• What is Long Term Memory?

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Long-term memory Explicit and Implicit
Memory
Explicit Memory (conscious)
Implicit memory(unconscious)
Semanticmemory (facts, general Knowledge decla
rative)
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Long-term memory Explicit and Implicit
Memory
Explicit Memory (conscious)
Implicit memory(unconscious)
Episodicmemory (your own Experiences)
Semanticmemory (facts, general Knowledge decla
rative)
Episodic memory is tied to a particular place and
time. It also keeps tracks of the order
Of things it is a good place to store jokes,
gossip, and plots from files (books, etc).
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Long-term memory Explicit and Implicit
Memory
Explicit Memory (conscious)
Implicit memory(unconscious)
Episodicmemory (your own Experiences)
Semanticmemory (facts, general Knowledge decla
rative)
Procedural Memory (motor skills, habits, tacit
Rules)
Procedural memory, then, is long term memory for
how to do things.
Once procedural memory becomes habit, it is
stored in long term memory as motor skills,
habits, or rules. Procedural memory includes
condition-action rules. These tell use what
To do under certain conditions.
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Long-term memory Explicit and Implicit
Memory
Explicit Memory (conscious)
Implicit memory(unconscious)
Episodicmemory (your own Experiences)
Semanticmemory (facts, general Knowledge decla
rative)
Classical Conditioning Effects (e.g., condi-
tioned
emotional reactions)
Procedural Memory (motor skills, habits, tacit
Rules)
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Long-term memory Explicit and Implicit
Memory
Explicit Memory (conscious)
Implicit memory(unconscious)
Episodicmemory (your own Experiences)
Semanticmemory (facts, general Knowledge decla
rative)
Classical Conditioning Effects (e.g., condi-
tioned
emotional reactions)
Procedural Memory (motor skills, habits, tacit
Rules)
Priming (implicit activation of concepts in
long-term
Memory)
That is, you activate information already in
memory because of some stimulus in the
environment (but NOT consciously).
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Storing and Retrieving Information in Long Term
Memory

• The way you learn information in the first place
  strongly affects its recall later.
  
• You need to integrate new information with
  knowledge ALREADY in long-term memory as you
  CONSTRUCT an understanding.
  
• What do the above mean?
• Why are the above two statements VERY important
  for your learning and classroom teaching??

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Strong information

• Elaboration is adding and extending meaning by
  connecting new information to existing knowledge.
  We might apply schemas or something else in long
  term memory and based on new information change
  the schema slightly. Its sometimes automatic
  sometimes we need to do so consciously. Its a
  good strategy to use as you read
  information/texts that are new in order to try
  to think about what you already know and connect
  the new information to something in your memory.
• Elaboration is a form of rehearsal it keeps
  information activated in working memory for long
  enough to link it to long term memory. It also
  builds extra links to existing knowledge. The
  more links there are to something, the easier it
  is to retrieve it.
• How might you teach elaboration strategies to
  your students?
  
• Material that is well organized is easier to
  remember. Try to actively place information in a
  structure that will help you learn (e.g., images,
  visuals, flowcharts, concept maps, databases,
  etc.).
• How can you help your students organize
  information so that it will be better stored in
  long term memory? What TECHNOLOGIES and
  APPLICATIONS might facilitate this process?
• Why might rote memorization NOT help to
  understand content in a course?

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Retrieving information from long term memory

• To retrieve information from long-term memory,
  you have to sometimes search your memory. This
  is sometimes a conscious activity, sometimes
  unconscious. Sometimes, it is very hard to find
  what you are looking for.
• Activation spreading is the retrieval of
  information based on how the information is
  related to each other.
  
• Retrieval from long-term memory is the process of
  searching for and finding information in long
  term memory.
  
• Reconstruction is recreating information by using
  memories, expectations, logic, and existing
  knowledge.
  
• Some theorists believe that nothing is ever lost
  from long term memory. Information stored in
  long term memory may be available, given the
  right cues (whereas information from working
  memory is lost permanently when it is
  forgotten.). If you cant remember something
  that was once stored in the long-term memory, it
  is possible that the links that you had to it
  have weakened over time yet, given the right
  cues, it is likely that you will be able to
  remember or retrieve this information.