Article:Information Processing 2
From unthinkMedia
Contents |
Sensory Memory
Sensory memory is the ability to store sensory information for a short time after the original stimulus has ended. This was demonstrated by Sperling (1960) where he presented subject with 3x4 matrix of letters, and ask them to memorize as many letter as they could with only 50 milliseconds of exposure.
Audio Echo
Darwin, Turvey, and Crowder(1972), found that auditory sensory memory (echo) lasted up to 4 seconds longer then visual sensory memory (icon). This might be due to how speech works, sounds need to be held in memory long enough for them to be understood.
Attention
Attention is not an all-or-nothing function, we are able to tune out stimulation. We are able to shift our attention on demand when another stimulus in the environment, such as reading a book and then shifting your attention to people having a conversation about something interesting.
Selective Attention
Selective attention is the ability to toggle back and forth from various informational stimulus. Some factors that may increase the likelihood that certain information may be selected over others are:
- the relevance to the individual
- the simulates between all the competing information. If all the information blends together, visually or auditory, then it become more difficult to focus on one specific piece of information.
- the complexity of the task at hand make it easy to attend to other information gathering. For example rolling yarn while you read your email.
The inability of the individual to control their attention may be due to age, hyperactivity, intelligence, and learning disabilities.
takeaway
- Teachers sometimes use signals such as "Let's begin", blowing a whistle, etc to get students attention.
- Learner should learn to reduce impulsiveness and should be given metacognitive strategies to focus their attention
Automaticity
This is when a task is overlearned and become habitual, as a result the amount of cognitive resources that need to be allocated to task are minimal. This is usually the result of learning, repetition, and practice.
examples
- Holding a conversation while driving
takeaway
It is great to strive for automaticity in core-foundation functions so the individual could devote cognitive effort to higher-order comprehension skills.
This reminds me of how when you train a martial arts which consist of many quick decisions in short periods of time, the experienced practitioner almost feels as though they are in slow motion, enabling them to focus on strategy.
Pattern Recognition
This refers to new presented information sharing similarities with information that are already in memory.
- Template matching: compared directly to copies (templates) stored in the long term memory.
- Prototype matching: does not emphasize a perfect match between the incoming stimuli and the stored concept in the brain. It consist of an abstract generalization of the information. This pattern recognission check if incoming stimuli is "close enough".
- Feature analysis: This presumes that distinctive features of new stimuli are stored on memory.
Gestalt
Gestalt means a "unified whole", where individuals organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied.
- Similarity
- Proximity
- Closure
- Continuation
- Figure & Ground
Working Memory
The term working memory refers to a brain system that provides temporary storage and manipulation of the information necessary for such complex cognitive tasks as language comprehension, learning, and reasoning.
Working memory has a limited capacity as depicted by Millar's 7 pieces of information +- 2. In this article he shows how working memory may increase by chunking information into groups of bits.
Rehearsal
- Maintenance rehearsal: repeat information as it is presented with no additional analysis. Repeating a phone number back to yourself.
recency and primacy effect:
The order in which information is learned determines how reliably it will be recalled.
- primacy effect: The first item in a list is initially distinguished from previous activities as important
- recency effect: Items at the end of the list are still in short-term memory.
Encoding
- Relating information to concepts already in memory
- Developing Mnemonics
- combining imagery. Children publish their stories and draw illustration to gain a better connection to the words.
- elaborating on the information making it more meaningful. This includes reading an article and then reflecting on the article via a blog post or some other outlet.
