Information Processing: Stage Theory

1
The Stage Approach
...Draw and describe a model of the stage
approach to information processing to learning,
giving original examples as to how you as teacher
could use this theory to structure the learning
process to help students learn better.
Developed by W. Huitt (1999)
2
The Information Processing Approach
The cognitive learning theory is represented as
an S-O-R paradigm. The organism is treated as an
active processor of information.
3
The Stage Approach
One of the major issues in cognitive psychology
is the study of memory. The stage theory proposes
that information is processed and stored in 3
stages.
4
The Stage Approach
5
The Stage Approach
In the behavioral model, an external stimulus
either

• is associated with a response as a result of
  contiguous placement

• elicits a naturally occurring response

• changes the probability a voluntary response
  will occur again.

6
The Stage Approach
In the cognitive model, the learning process
begins when an external stimulus activates a
sensory receptor cell.
This model shows an external stimulus activating
a sensory receptor cell that results in the
generation of a sensory memory.
7
The Stage Approach
8
The Stage Approach
Sensory memory is affiliated with the
transduction of energy (change from one energy
from to another).
The environment makes available a variety of
sources of information (light, sound, smell,
heat, cold, etc.), but the brain only understands
electrical energy.
9
The Stage Approach
The body has special sensory receptor cells that
transduce (change from one form of energy to
another) this external energy to something the
brain can understand.
In the process of transduction, a memory is
created. This memory is very short (less than 1/2
second for vision about 3 seconds for hearing).
10
The Stage Approach
It is absolutely critical that the learner
initially process (attend) to the information at
this beginning stage in order to transfer it to
the next one. Otherwise, according to the stage
model of memory, the information is immediately
forgotten.
11
The Stage Approach
If the stimulus that activates a sensory receptor
cell is attended to, it is combined with
information stored in long-term memory, and
brought into short-term memory.
12
The Stage Approach
13
The Stage Approach
Short-term memory is sometimes called working
memory (although recent research has demonstrated
these are two separate issues) and relates to
what we are thinking about at any given moment in
time as well as what we have attended to in the
recent past.
In Freudian terms, this is working memory is
called the conscious.
14
The Stage Approach
Short-term memory is created by our paying
attention to an external stimulus, an internal
thought, or both.
It will initially last somewhere around 15-30
seconds unless it is repeated (called maintenance
or rote rehearsal), at which point it may be
available for up to 20 minutes.
15
The Stage Approach
The hypothalamus is a brain structure thought to
be involved in this shallow processing of
information.
The frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex is the
structure associated with working memory.
16
The Stage Approach
For example, you are processing the words you
read on the screen in your frontal lobes.
However, if I ask, "What is your telephone
number?" your brain immediately calls that from
long-term memory and replaces what was previously
there.
17
The Stage Approach
Another major limit on information processing in
STM is in terms of the number of units that can
be processed an any one time.
18
The Stage Approach
There are three major concepts for getting
information into STM
First, individuals are more likely to pay
attention to a stimulus if it has an interesting
feature. We are more likely to get an orienting
response if this is present.
19
The Stage Approach
There are three major concepts for getting
information into STM
Second, individuals are more likely to pay
attention if the stimulus activates a known
pattern. To the extent we have students call to
mind relevant prior learning before we begin our
presentation, we can take advantage of this
principle.
20
The Stage Approach
There are three major concepts for getting
information into STM
Third, because of the variability in how much
individuals can work with (for some it may be
three, for others seven) it is necessary to point
out important information.
If some students can only process three units of
information at a time, we need to make certain it
is the most important three.
21
The Stage Approach
There are two major concepts for retaining
information in STM

• organization

• repetition

22
The Stage Approach
There are four major types of organization that
are most often used in instructional design
Classification by category or concept (e.g., the
components of the teaching/learning model)
Component (part/whole)
23
The Stage Approach
There are four major types of organization that
are most often used in instructional design
Chronological cause/effect building to climax
(e.g., baking a cake, reporting on a research
study
Sequential
24
The Stage Approach
There are four major types of organization that
are most often used in instructional design
Central unifying idea or criteria (e.g., most
important principles of instruction for boys and
girls, appropriate management strategies for
middle school and high school students)
Relevance
25
The Stage Approach
There are four major types of organization that
are most often used in instructional design
Relational words or phrases used to indicate
qualitative change over time (e.g., stages in
Piaget's theory of cognitive development or
Erikson's stages of socioemotional development)
Transitional (connective)
26
The Stage Approach
A related issue to organization is the concept of
chunking or the grouping into pieces of data into
units.
For example, the letters "d b e" constitute three
units of information while the word "bed"
represents one unit even though it is composed of
the same number of letters.
27
The Stage Approach
A related issue to organization is the concept of
chunking or the grouping into pieces of data into
units.
Chunking is a major technique for getting and
keeping information in short-term memory it is
also a type of elaboration that will help get
information into long-term memory.
28
The Stage Approach
Repetition or rote rehearsal is a technique we
all use to try to "learn" something.
However, in order to be effective this must be
done after forgetting begins.
Researchers advise that the learner should not
immediately repeat the content (or skill), but
wait a few minutes and then repeat.
29
The Stage Approach
Remember that learning is defined as the
relatively permanent change in behavior (or
behavior potential) as a result of experience or
practice.
Until information is processed into long-term
memory, learning has not occurred.
30
The Stage Approach
In Freudian terms, long-term memory is also
called preconscious and unconscious memory.
Preconscious means that the information is
relatively easily recalled (although it may take
several minutes or even hours) while unconscious
refers to data that is not available during
normal consciousness.
31
The Stage Approach
It is preconscious memory that is the focus of
the study of long-term memory in cognitive
psychology, although the levels-of-processing
theory acknowledges that there is much we "know"
that is not easily accessed.
The two processes most likely to move information
into long-term memory are elaboration and
distributed practice (referred to as periodic
review in the direct instruction model).
32
The Stage Approach
There are several examples of elaboration that
are commonly used in the teaching/ learning
process
Imaging
Creating a mental picture
33
The Stage Approach
There are several examples of elaboration that
are commonly used in the teaching/ learning
process
Ideas or things to be remembered are connected to
objects located in a familiar location
Method of loci--(locations)
34
The Stage Approach
There are several examples of elaboration that
are commonly used in the teaching/ learning
process
Ideas or things to be remembered are connected to
specific words (e.g., one-bun, two-shoe,
three-tree, etc.)
Pegword method
35
The Stage Approach
There are several examples of elaboration that
are commonly used in the teaching/ learning
process
Information to be remember is arranged in a rhyme
(e.g., 30 days hath September, April, June and
November, etc
Rhyming (songs, phrases)
36
The Stage Approach
There are several examples of elaboration that
are commonly used in the teaching/ learning
process
The first letter of each word in a list is used
to make a sentence (the sillier, the better)
Initial letter
37
The Stage Approach
In summary, the three processes of the stage
approach are very similar to that postulated by
the levels-of-processing approach

• Attention (process to STM)

• Repetition (maintain in STM)

• Elaboration (process to LTM)

38
The Stage Approach
A major distinction is the focus of the model

• Placement into memory (stage approach)

• Retrieval from memory (levels-of-processing)

39
The Stage Approach
The parallel distributed processing and
connectionistic models focus more on the
organization of knowledge which is covered in the
next presentation.