PYC 4805:
Developmental
Psychology
, 1. Information Processing and Attention:
1.1. Information-Processing Model:
» The information-processing model uses a computer metaphor to explain how people process stimuli.
- As with a computer , information enters the system (people’s brains) And is transformed, coded, and sto
ways.
- Information enters storage temporarily, as in a computer’s buffer, until it becomes stored more permane
computer storage device (USB, hard drive, cloud storage, etc).
- At a later time, information can be retrieved in response to some cue, such as a command to open a file.
» The information processing model is based on 3 long held assumptions: (1) People are active participants
process, (2) both quantitative (how much information is remembered) and qualitative (what kinds of infor
remembered) aspects of performance can be examined, and (3) information is processed through a series
» First, incoming information is transformed based on what the person already knows about it.
- Second, researchers look for age differences in both how much information is processed and what types
are remembered based under various conditions.
- 3rd, researchers in adult development and aging focus on several specific aspects of information process
aspects, including a brief sensory memory and attention ; And active processing that transfers information
term store )e.g., long-term memory).
, 1.1. Information-Processing Model:
1. Sensory Memory:
- All memories start as sensory stimuli – a song heard, a person seen, a hand felt. We need to experience
for only a small fraction of a second in order to process the information.
- This ability is due to the earliest step in information processing, sensory memory, where knew, incoming
first registered.
- Sensory memory is a brief and almost identical representation of the stimuli that exists in the observabl
environment.
- Sensory memory takes in large amounts of information rapidly.
- This type of memory is as if the representation exists in your mind in the absence of the stimuli itself.
- Importantly, age differences are not typically found in sensory memory.
1.2. Attention: The Basics:
» From the functional perspective, attention is composed of the separate dimensions serving different fun
» The complex tasks we engage in when processing information usually require more than one attentiona
» Changing focus from one function to another is how we control attention.
- In addition, attentional processes are influenced by our capacity to sustain attention, as well as the spe
incoming information is processed.
» In the brain, attentional control is linked to the integration of processing in the parietal and frontal lobes
- Parieto-frontal integration processes undergo significant change with age, not surprisingly, then, age di
emerge in various aspects of attention.
, 1.3. Speed of Processing:
» Speed of processing is how quickly and efficiently the early steps in information processing are completed
» At one time, researchers believed decline in speed of processing explained the rest of age-related changes
functioning.
- However, this rather simple explanation fell out of favor because research shows whether or not you obs
depends on what the task is and because all components of mental processing do not slow equivalently.
» Evidence including neuroimaging studies indicates related slowing depends on what adults are being aske
- Interestingly, the amount of beta-amyloid protein found in the central nervous system, a bio-marker linke
possible subsequent development of dementia has been shown to be related to the degree processing sp
1.4. Processing Resources:
» Many theorists and researchers believe with increasing age comes a decline in the amount of cognitive
deploys on a task.
- This idea is described in terms of processing resources.
» Processing resources refers to the amount of attention one has to apply to a particular situation.
- There is a nagging problem about the processing resource construct: at this general level it has never b
defined and is too broad.
» Two more precise approaches to processing resources or inhibitory loss and attentional resources.
