Information Processing

Module 11

Group 2: Allie Hymas, Anna Goode, Heather Durney, Kiyo Olive &
Sammie Martin
 Information Processing Theory
 These theories focus on internal mental process
that occur as opposed to external behaviors.
 The mind takes in information, performs
operations to change its form, stores it, and
retrieves it when needed.
 The three major categories of these functions
are:
 Sensory Memory
 Working (or Short Term) Memory
 Long-Term Memory
 Sensory Memory
 Sensory Memory takes in information exactly how
we sense it, but doesn't leave much time for
processing and creating knowledge from it.
 Humans usually respond to 6
different stimuli with particular
attention:
1. Size: large things
2. Intensity: Bright and Loud
stimuli
3. Novelty: new and unusual
things
4. Incongruity: things that don't
make sense within a given context
5. Emotion: stimuli with strong
emotional attachments
6. Personal significance: stimuli
http://www.eyecanlearn.com/elves_%20memory.htm
Working memory
 Once we pay attention to a stimulus, we transfer
this information to our working memory, where the
information is put to use.
 Central executive- acts as a supervisor, deems
what is important and what strategies to use to
process information
 Working memory holds five to nine chunks of data
at time.
 Working memory can include processes that are
outside its conscious awareness, some
information is more readily available than others,
and our capacity for storing information in working
memory varies.
Working memory
 Information in working memory is typically lost
within 5 to 20 seconds, but it stays longer if we
are constantly using it.
 Automatic and effortful processing
 Mnemonic devices
 Chunking: Grouping individual bits of information
in meaningful way
 Girl, cat, pants, apple, pizza, swimming pool, ball,
computer, moon, cow, jungle
 Couch, apple, chair, mom, dad, table, orange,
lamp, sister, grapes, brother, rug
Long term memory
Types of Knowledge
 Explicit: information we are consciously
aware of such as facts learned at school
 Implicit: information we are not aware of
such as routines and procedures
 How to drink out of a big kid cup?
Long term memory
How memories are stored
 Network Theory: Information is stored in
propositions; you can find multiple
propositions within a single thought
 Schema Theory: Information is stored in
preexisting frameworks

Why do we sometimes have a harder time

remembering things that are important than we do
remembering things that are not as important?
Long term memory
 Forget it?
 Encoding Failure: the information never
made it to the long-term memory
 Storage Decay: we lose information very
quickly at first but the curve levels off
 Retrieval Failure: we know we learned the
information, but can’t remember exactly
what it was
Do you see the three faces?
 Individual Differences in
Information Processing
 Sensory information processing:
 Younger children process information more slowly than older
children
 Selective attention increases with age, the older the better we
are at focusing
 Girls may have advantage over boys at remembering items on
list

 Working information processing:

 Young children have less working memory capacity than older
children, developmental differences
 Older individuals process information faster and therefore can
retrieve before it decays
 Young children may be learning information for the first time
 The more types of knowledge you gain the better you can
Differences in strategy use
 Automaticity: The ability to respond quickly and
efficiently while mentally processing or physically
performing a task.
 Examples: flashcards and practice, practice,
practice!
Application to teaching
1. Plan for attention (level)
2. Use attention signals
3. Keep student’s attention engaged
4. Respect attentional limits
Application to teaching
 Helping students store and retrieve
information effectively:
 Organization
 Conceptual Understanding
 Task analysis
 Relevance
 Automaticity
 Acquisition of Procedural knowledge