Information-Processing Theory

Chapter 8: Summary





Information-Processing Theory: seeks to understand how people acquire new information, how they store information and recall it from memory, and how what they already know guides and determines what and how they will learn.





The Information-Processing View of Learning


Theory rests of 3 assumptions:

1. Information is processed in steps or stages.



2. There are limits on how much information can be processed at each stage.



3. The human information-processing system is interactive.

Learning results from an interaction between an environmental stimulus and a learner.

A Model of Information Processing

1. 3 memory stores: sensory register, a short-term store and a long-term store



2. Control processes help determine the quantity and quality of information that the learner stores in and retrieves from memory, and it is the learner who decides whether, when, and how to employ them.



3. The Sensory Register: the first memory store, the information it stores is thought to be encoded in the same form in which it is originally perceived; PURPOSE: to hold information just long enough (1-3 seconds) for us to decide whether we want to attend to it further



4. Recognition: involves noting key features of a stimulus and relating them to already stored information. Due to elementary school students' limited store of knowledge, they need more structured learning tasks than middle school or high school students. They must be provided with clear, complete, explicit directions and learning materials.



5. Attention: the selective focusing on a portion of the information currently stored in the sensory register. Information in long-term memory influences what we attend to.



6. Short-term Memory: (Working Memory) the second memory store, which holds information that has been attended to. It can usually hold about 7 unrelated bits of information for approximately 20 seconds. It is called working memory because it holds information we are currently aware of at any given moment and is the place where various encoding, organizational, and retrieval processes occur.



7. Rehearsal: Maintenance and elaborative



8. Maintenance Rehearsal: (rote rehearsal or repetition) only purpose is to use mental and verbal repetition to hold information in short-term memory for some immediate purpose but it has no effect on long-term memory storage.



9. Elaborative Rehearsal: (elaborative encoding) we use information stored in long-term memory to add details to new information, clarify the meaning of a new idea, make inferences, construct visual images, and create analogies. Elaborative rehearsal is based on organization and meaningfulness.



10. Organization: reduces the number of chunks and provides recall cues



11. Meaningful Learning: occurs when organized material is associated with stored knowledge



12. Visual Imagery Encoding: like pictures. images can be said to be worth a thousand words because they contain a wealth of infomation in a compact, organized, and meaningful format; The more concrete a passage is the more easily understood it is.



13. Dual coding theory: concrete material and concrete words are remembered better than abstract words because the former can be encoded in two ways, as images and as verbal labels, whereas abstract words are encoded only verbally



14. Long-Term Memory: permanent storehouse of unlimited capacity



15. Information in long-term memory is organized as schemata (an abstract structure of information)



16. Students remember much of what they learn in school, especially if mastery and active learning are emphasized. Less forgetting occurred among students who learned the material to a higher level before moving on such as making a high grade on an exam before progressing forward or by having to teach other less knowledgeable students. It also occurred in classes in which students were more actively involved in learning such as went on a field trip where the students had to observe, sketch, record and answer questions.

Metacognition

1. Metacognition: our own knowledge of how we think; cognition- describes the way in which information is processed (attended to, recognized, encoded, stored in memory for various lengths of time, retrieved from storage, and used for one purpose or another)


2. 3 part classification scheme: 1.) Knowledge of person variables (knowing that you are good at learning verbal material but poor at learning mathematical material, or knowing that information not rehearsed or encoded is quickly forgotten); 2.) Knowledge of task variables (knowing that passages with long sentences and unfamiliar words are usually harder to understand than passages that are more simply written); and 3.) Knowledge of strategy variables (knowing that one should skim through a text passage before reading it to determine its length and difficulty level)


3. Vygotsky strongly suggests that providing children with opportunities to regulate their own and others' behavior, as in peer tutoring, is an excellent way to help them increase their metacognitive knowledge and skills and to improve the quality of their learning.


4. Insight into one's learning processes improves with age

Ways in which you can encourage your students to develop their metacognitive skills

1. By thinking about the various conditions that affect how they learn and remember


2. Young children should be told periodically that such cognitive behaviors as describing, recalling, guessing, and understanding mean different things, produce different results, and vary in how well they fit a task's demand.


3. For older elementary and middle school children, explain the learning processes, and focus on the circumstances in which different learning tactics are likely to be used.


4. Have students keep a diary or log in which they note when they use learning tactics, which ones, and with what success.


5. Encourage greater use of tactics among students whose performance and reported use of them are below average.

Technology as an Information-Processing Tool

1. This idea explains how technological tools help students process and represent information, so that they can acquire important knowledge and skills from different subject areas, and provide multiple representations of knowledge to regulate their own thinking.

Writing

1. When computers are networked, teachers can use Electronic Read Around (sitting at separate computers, each student writes on a topic the teacher gives; then each student clicks on an icon representing another student's computer, reads what that student wrote, and provides feedback in a different font at the end of the document; this process is repeated until each student has read and commented on every student's text; they then use the comments to revise and edit their own pieces)


2. Online synchronous chats (a student can share ideas in real time with one or more classmates on the topic they are writing about; basically like instant messaging)


3. The World Wide Web: weblogs (blogs); Weblogs in Education site (http://www.schoolblogs.com/)


4. Kidforum (www.kidlink.org/KIDFORUM/collaborative_writing.htm)


5. Through Our Eyes (www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ)

Reading

1. Reading a story from a CD-ROM where they can click on words for pronunciations and definitions, caused reading comprehension scores to improve.

Science and Math

1. Marcia Linn and other researchers argued that students should spend less time manually calculating and plotting data and more time using technology to summarize and interpret data, look for trends, and predict relationships.


2. They created the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) Project (http://www.wise.berkeley.edu/). It contains a variety of science projects that teachers can adapt to local curricula and to state and national standards. This project can help students make connections among science ideas rather than learn by rote isolated facts whose relevance is not understood and that are soon forgotten. SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT IDEA


3. Calculator-Based Laboratory (CBL): provides a data-collection system that uses probes, such as temperature, light, and voltage probes, to gather data into a graphing calculator. Students taking a math class might use this tool to represent and manipulate quadratic equations in algebra, visualize statistics and other information in geometry classes, and better understand derivatives and inequalities in calculus.


4. National Center for Health Statistics www.cdc.gov/nchs , National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration http://www.noaa.gov/ , and the National Geophysical Data Center http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/ can be used to find data to make relationships more concrete and have more meaning and then use graphing calculators and spreadsheets to create graphic representations of the data.

Art and Music

1. Draw and paint modules of Appleworks and Microsoft Works can be used to alter images.


2. Digital oscilloscopes help students to understand relationships between pitch and wavelength.


3. Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) and Formal Instrumental Music Tuition (FIMT) allows students to compose at the keyboard, play a musical instrument and record it on a computer, and play one part of a multi-instrument piece while the program plays the other.

Multimedia Tools

1. Multimedia encyclopedias, databases, and libraries provide students with a wide variety of information sources. They offer multiple views on difficult concepts. They also provide more than one way to retrieve or visit the information.

Hypermedia Tools

1. This exists when multimedia information can be nonsequentially accessed, examined, and constructed by users, thereby enabling them to move from one information resource to another while controlling which options to take.


2. Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores in the Age of the Dinosaurs (1st - 5th grades): students can explore multiple locations in different parts of the world and in 3 prehistoric time periods. It also offers a dozen games and activities that involve dinosaurs.


3. Habitat Management and Monitoring: interactive science modules developed for high school students by the EPA and Purdue University

Multimedia and Hypermedia Technology Information

1. These programs that make appropriate use of animation and interactivity improve learning.


2. When students select topics and associated terms for a Web search and then evaluate the results, they are engaged in metacognition: making decisions about what information to read, thinking about knowledge interrelationships, and engaging in extensive self-questioning and note taking.


3. When they create databases of related ideas or link information in multiple formats, they are making decisions and elaboratively encoding information. These are all important metacognitive skills.

Suggestions for Teaching in Your Classroom: Helping them to become efficient information processors

1. Develop and use a variety of techniques to attract and hold attention, and give your students opportunities to practice and refine their skills in maintaining attention. (print keywords or ideas in extra-large letters, use colored chalk, present ideas with intensity and emphasis, teach basic skills as part of class projects that relate to student's natural interests, and institute games that depend on maintaining attention)


2. Point out and encourage students to recognize that certain bits of information are important and can be related to what they already know. (give students the opportunity for them to express ideas in their own words)


3. Use appropriate rehearsal techniques, including an emphasis on meaning and chunking.


4. Distributed practice: short study periods at frequent intervals


5. Serial position effect: tendency to remember items at beginning and end of a long list


6. Massed practice: learn by way of a few rather long study periods, spaced infrequently


7. Organize what you ask your students to learn, and urge older students to organize material on their own


8. Make what students learn more meaningful by presenting information in concrete, visual terms

Life Experiences:

The idea of short and long term memory is something that we all "think" about. When trying to study for tests we have to place that information in our long term memory. We also have to place all of the strategies and techniques that we are taught in our long term memory so that we can use them when we become teachers. Our short and long term memory is both so important. I have to teach my students how to say certain sounds correctly. They must place that information into their short term memory while we are working on it but as time passes we have to teach them how to continue using that information by placing it into their long term memory.

Journal:

I have really enjoyed keeping this journal, especially for this chapter. There was so many different websites and good information in this chapter. If I did not keep this journal I would never be able to find the great things that I have learned so far. Unfortunately I am not a very organized person many times, my life is so crazy I just have to do things as I can. This journal has given me a way of keeping information a little more organized so that when I finish college I will be able to use it in the future.

Educational Blog:

She has begun posting quotes of the week, they are really great. Last week it was “Change your Thoughts and You Change Your World”-Norman Vincent Peale; and this week it is "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much" - Helen Keller. They are both really great quotes. I really like reading about how she is able to use technology to serve her clients better. She has used telepractice for quite sometime but with the addition of some new software she is able to play games with her clients online without having to make copies and play by watching each other. She can now link with her client and they can play the same game online together. By playing games while helping the individual they both are able to get so much more out of it. No one likes to just sit there are say words back and forth to each other but if they can play a game while talking you are giving them a better chance of carrying that information over into conversation. So many times when I work with kids I can get them to say it correctly if they are just saying one word at a time but if they are carrying on a conversation with me it just doesn't carry over. In today's society we are being pressured with so much financial concerns that people just do not travel as much as they did. By using telepractice, she is able to serve so many more individuals without them having to travel. She posted a really great YouTube video about how she uses the online games with her clients. It was very informational. She posted a website linking you to the ASHA website explaining what they require for using telepractice services. It was very informational especially for anyone who might use this as a form of speech therapy. Technology is evolving so much more everyday in our lives that we must begin to think of things like this because there are times we just can't meet with every client we may need to. I hope to be able to incorporate this into my services at some point in time. I want to work in the school atmosphere but I also want to be able to work with other individuals outside of the school setting. This may be away that I can be at home with my family at times and still be able to work.

Question of the Week: What are some specific techniques that you would like to incorporate into your teaching based on information processing? Why do you think these techniques will work?

I love the different sections about using technology as an information-processing tool. There was so many different and great ideas included in each of those sections. I love the technique of Electronic Read Around and online synchronous chats. Both of those techniques could help so many students when writing especially students with disabilities. I can't wait to check out the Kidforum and Through our Eyes projects, they both sound really great. The idea of using CD-ROM's with reading is a strategy that I used for my kids as they were learning to read. They played interactive book games on the computer and also used their LeapFrog which allowed them to interact while reading. After using blogs for this college class, I feel that so many students could benefit just like I have from it. Our school currently uses the Texas Instrument graphing calculators in the different math classes in high school, so why not incorporate the CBL's too and using those different sites of various statistics and information when using their calculators. I intend on telling our high school math teacher and science teacher about the WISE Project. Their students could benefit in so many different ways by using this project. Since I am going into Speech Language Pathology, many of these things cannot be as easily incorporated into my area like they can be in the regular classroom. I do want to inform my high school students and the other teachers about them so that they can use some of the information that I have learned through this chapter.

Kids learn so much more when they are interested in what they doing and they have some input into what they are studying. So by using these various strategies we allow the students to have some control over their education. No child likes to be told everything that they have to do, they like to be able to make some choices for themselves.