Information Processing in Early Childhood

Information Processing Theory

 is a cognitive theoretical framework that focuses on how knowledge enters and is

stored and retrieved from our memory.
 The Information Processing model is another way of examining and understanding
how children develop cognitively. This model, developed in the 1960's and 1970's,
conceptualizes children's mental processes through the metaphor of a computer
processing, encoding, storing, and decoding data.

3 Primary Stages of Information Processing Theory

1. Encoding

 information is sensed, perceived, and attended to.

 when information comes into our memory system (from our sensory input) it needs to be
changed into a form that the system can cope with so that it can be stored.

3 Main ways in which information can be encoded

1. Visuall (picture)

2. Acoustic (sounds)

3. Semantic (meaning)

2. Storage

 The Information is stored for either a brief or extended period of time, depending upon the
processes following encoding.
 This concerns the nature of memory stores, i.e. : where the information is stored, how long the
memory lost for, how much can be stored at any time and what kind of information is held.

3. Retrieval

 The Information is brought back at the appropriate time, and reactivated for use on a current
task, the true measure of effective memory.
 Refers to getting information out storage.

Ms. Wadsworth is teaching her 4-and -5 year olds how to tie shows. She begins demonstrating on Nick’s
shoes by pulling both laces straight up, one lace in each hand. Then she crosses them over and points
out the teepee/ triangle that they form. The she crosses one over the other and pulls the laces apart to
tighten them. She now begins the actual knot. “When make a loop with each lace. Look, they look like
bunny ears.” When Nick tries, he can get the laces tight on the shoe, but keeps for getting how to make
the loops. “I can’t do it, “he moans as he drops the laces.

Why did Nick forget the instructions? Nick had to remember a sequence of steps and the relevant finger
movements-which overloaded his working memory. Chunking is one of important thing that might help
you in remembering. Chunking is one memorization technique that can facilitate the transfer of
information into long-term memory. This approach involves organizing information into more easily
learned groups, phrases, words, or numbers. For example, you might remember a new phone number
long enough to dial it, but only if nothing interrupts you. You will find it easier if you chunk the seven
digits into fewer items. Imagine you want to remember 882-2015. If 882 is a common prefix in your
town, and if you graduated from high school in 2015, the phone number effectively of only two chunks-
882 and 2015. Which is it is much easier to hold two chunks in working memory that seven items.
Cuncking helps you to remember other types of information as well. For example, memorizing a list of
vocabulary words is easier if you place them in a sentence that makes sense.
Memory-span – refers to the number of items, usually presented rapidly, that you can recall in exact
order.

Digit span- when digits are used (e.g., 5,1,3) as the thing to remember

Storage-and- processing tasks- the most complex task, ask you to remember numbers or words while
also processing other information such as counting to 100 by 5x. Your executive functions control the
shifting of attention back and forth from storage to processing.

Executive Functions

Executive functions include working memory, and inhibitory control. Two additional executive
functions are cognitive flexibility and metacognition.

Cognitive Flexibility

 Cognitive flexibility (also called attention shifting) is the ability to change how you think about
something, switch perspectives, and adjust to changing demands.
 Cognitive flexibility is the ability to adapt our behaviour and thinking in response to the
environment. When children are asked to think about multiple concepts simultaneously or
change their approach to solving a problem, they need to demonstrate flexible thinking
 Cognitive flexibility occurs in two main ways:
1. The ability to think about multiple things at the same time.
2. The ability to modify thinking based on a change in expectations and/or demand.

Let's think about a typical example. Imagine the teacher has asked students to see how
many ways their class can be sorted into different groups. Your child might say, “they all
belong to the same grade!” Does your child also consider that they can be sorted by age,
height, gender, favourite animal, sports, number of siblings, hair colour, and so on? Whether
the problem is in real-life or an academic task, your child needs to look at situations from
multiple perspectives.

Metacognition

 Sometimes you think about your thinking, which is an executive function called metacognition.
 Metacognition refers to your knowledge of your own learning processes and how to regulate
them.
 It takes metacognition to choose a strategy to apply to a problem. It takes metacognition to
answer the question “what do you know and how do you know it?”

When you finish reading a page of a textbook and suddenly realize that you have not processed
a single word , that is metacognition at work. Planning and using effective learning strategies is
part of metacognition.

 Two types of metacognition are important for learning:

1. Metacomprehension – refers to judging when you have understood something. You can
improve metacomprehension by practicing summarizing what you have read (Dunlosky
&Lipko, 2007)
2. Metamemory – refers to what you know about your own memory and how to store or
retrieve information from it. Children with better metamemory are better at recall and use
better memory strategies. (Pierce & Lange,2000)

Memory

 From an information processing point of view, cognitive growth is the result of greater
knowledge-or long term memory –as well as greater processing speed and executive functions.
 Greater knowledge that is overlearned and automatic frees resources and is processed more
quickly.
 Memory Errors
- Memory is an exact replica of an object, event, or experience. There are two types
of memories verbatim traces, which are detailed accurate memories, and fuzzy
traces, which general, vague memories, or the gist of an experience. Can you
remember the a lecture word for word from last week? Probably not, but you might
remember the gist of it. Most of your remembering involves fuzzy, not verbatim
traces. This may not seem ideal, but in fact fuzzy traces are adequate for most
endeavors.
- There are at least three reasons learners forget things.
1. Decay- The memory decays over time and loses strength if it is not used.
2. Retrieval Failure- Learners may know something but then go blank when asked.
They cannot retrieve the information when they need it.
3. Interference- New knowledge can make retrieval of old knowledge difficult, and
vise versa. For example, Kevin is an English speaker who knows the word
embarrassed (old knowledge). In Spanish class, he learns that embarazada
means pregnant (new knowledge) but has a trouble remembering the new
definition because of interference from the word embarrassed. When he does
something embarrassed, he says, “Estoy embarazado”, which means “I am a
pregnant boy” (adding to his embarrassment).

Although forgetting information you want to remember is frustrating, scientists argue that forgetting is
good for you, to some extent. forgetting painful experiences or failures helps you feel happier, and
forgetting irrelevant, incorrect, or out-of-date information unclutters your mind more efficient
thinking( Norby, 2015). It can help you see the forest rather than trees.

 Development of Memory
- Preschoolers experience each of these memory errors. Young children’s memories
are fragile and susceptible to interference. That is learning something new may
override existing memories (Darby & Sloutsky, 2015). Nevertheless, with adult
support they can display good long-term memory. For example, in a classic study
scientist asked children who were 3 and 4 years old when they visited Disneyworld
to recount their trips several months later. The children remembered a great deal of
accurate information about their trip. However, the 3 year olds needed cues to help
them remember, such as “What rides did you go on?” and “What did you eat?” The
4 year olds recalled more spontaneous, without cues, and they provided more
details. In reminiscing, adults provide more scaffolding with younger children
because they need more than older children (SAchneider & Ornstein, 2015).

Young children typically use only one memory strategy which is rehearsal. That is, saying
something over and over, whether aloud or “in their head”. For example, your brother wants to
play at your neighbor’s house. And you have told him to be home by five for dinner. So the
strategy of your brother is he keep repeating “I have to be home by five. “I have to be home by
five” in order for him to be reminded that by 5 he will be at home.

 Reasoning and Problem Solving

- Preschoolers become better at inductive reasoning, which refers to making
generalization from observed examples, than they were at earlier ages.
(Fisher,2015) For example, if a child sees a various of dogs barks, she might infer
that all dogs bark. Preschoolers are also capable of deductive reasoning in their
everyday behavior. Deduction is a form of reasoning in which a conclusion follows
logically from a set of premises.
Classroom Implications of Information Processing

 Information processing ability affects learner’ success in your classroom. Academic tasks-such as
learning to connect squiggles on a page with words that have meanings- require strong
information processing.
 Information-processing theory has definite educational implications for students with learning
and behavior problems. Teachers with a greater understanding of the theory and how it is
formed to, select learning strategies in order to improve the retention and retrieval of learning.
 Have you noticed that you have trouble thinking clearly or remembering things when your life is
not going well? Executive functions are compromised when you are stressed, sad, sleep-
deprived, or physical unfit , just as they are for your learners (Diamond, 2013)

If you have learners who have difficulty shifting between tasks, forget lengthy instructions,
forget letter in words or words in sentences, are easily distracted or poorly organized, cannot
complete multistep task, or raised their hand but forget their response when called on, they
may have limited information-processing ability. Here are a few things you can do as a teacher
to help such learners be successful.

1. Reduce Working Memory and Executive Load

- Your learners cannot process new information when their working memory capacity
is overloaded. To reduce the load on working memory;
1.1 Limit your Talking
o If you keep talking after presenting important information, it will be
forgotten. Present information at a speed that allows leaners to fully
process it.
1.2 Reduce distractions in your classroom
o Distractions can be comings and goings, announcements, and even
decorations that visually bombarded learners. For example, in an
experiment kindergarteners were off-task and learned less in a highly
decorated, versus Spartan room (Fisher, Godwin &Seltmsn, 2014)
1.3 Increase your learners expertise
o The more automatic their processing, the less space is consumed by
executive functions. If shoe tying is automatic for you, you would not be
overwhelmed by the task that Nick faced.
1.4 Provide External Storage
o A preschool teacher might post informational pictures on the wall. An
elementary teacher might right on the board. “Read for 20 minutes. Write a
summary of what you read. Look at the sample on the wall, if you need to.”
A secondary teacher might provide partial notes (i.e., a rough outline of the
lesson, but not details), which frees learners working memory to attend to
the information.
1.5 Carve problems into smaller subtasks that can be performed sequentially.
o In writing, this might include having a preschooler make a straight line and
then attaching two half circles to it to make a”B”. In math and science, this
includes providing formulas or algorithms.

2. Focus Attention
- Selective attention is considered a gateway to learning (Bahrick & Lickliter, 2014).
The better learner can control their attention, the higher their academic
achievement (e.g. Classens & Dowsett, 2014). You want your learners to
concentrate, resist distractions , and not let their minds wander during instruction.

To be an effective teacher, you need to attract learners attention and maintain it on

important information , particularly if you teach learners who have difficulty controlling their attention
period it help to make learning goal explicit and remind learners of the goal . Children often do not know
the goal of a learning task; without a goal they cannot accurately direct their attention and assess
whether they are rich in the goal (Barker & Munakata, 2015; Chevalier, 2015). It also help to give
learners a break for physical activity period after 20 minutes of exercise , learners behave more
attentively (Pontifex et al., 2014)

3. Strengthen Executive Functions

- Using executive functions make them stronger, just as using muscles makes them
stronger. You can strengthen your learners executive functions by following these
guidelines.
3.1 Promote healthy habits- specially adequate sleep , good nutrition , and physical
fitness . Executive functions require a large amount of glucose (the brain'fuel ).
2.) Part of why you don't think clearly when you are tired or hungry is because
your brain is depleted of fuel . The brain store of glucose is replenished during
sleep and after eating (Gailliot, 2008). Physical fitness is also linked to better
brain functioning, more fit children have faster processing speed, better
memory , and better is executive functions, including attention control
(Chaddock-Heyman, Cohen, & Kramer, 2014). Aerobic and mindful exercise , like
martial arts and yoga , may improve information processing in children
(Diamond & Lee, 2011)
3.2 Help learners practice using their executive functions through mundane, daily
activities like requiring them to sit up straight or persist in activities even when
they want to stop. However, be aware that you can overtax executive functions.
Learners may occasionally need a break (Kaplan & Berman, 2010).
3.3 Help young children improve their verbal abilities, which are linked to executive
functions. In this after you learned that self talk helps children regulate their
thoughts and attention. Music training hot also been shown to improve both
verbal ability and executive functions, presumably because they share the same
brain resources (Moreno et al., 2011).
3.4 Ask learners to think about their thinking, or practice metacognition , with
questions such as: "How did you know...? How have you improve your thinking
about math (or history, or science)? How would you do it differently? What did
you learn from doing this work? I noticed you erased a lot- how did you know it
needed fixing?"

You have learn the language ability is inextricably linked to cognitive development in each of the
theories discussed in this chapter. Children pass Piaget’s conservation tasks when they are able to give
primacy to language, they control their own language according to Vygotsky’s, and memory is enhanced
when children talk about gauge and emerging literary in early childhood.

In addition, this is the end of my topic which is all about Information Processing in Early Childhood.
Therefore, I conclude that as a future teachers we can able to identify our students capabilities and
abilities of how our students are they going to process the information that we have thought to them.
And also how are we going to help them to retrieve those information which is stored to their brain. So
the next presenter is Ms. Rica Agelimay Ypnato in which she will discuss the Language and Literacy
Development in Early Childhood.