Exam 9: Cognitive Development: Information-Processing Perspectives and Connectionism

Explain the concept of memory span, and describe the typical memory span found in preschool children and in elementary-school children.

Compare and contrast the information-processing approach to the connectionist approach to cognitive development.

In contrast to younger children, how do older children rehearse information?

Rachel is 4 years old and has difficulty with a task requiring her to decide whether two complex stimuli are the same or different.To what would Vurpillot attribute Rachel's difficulties with this task?

Which of the following best describes what fuzzy-trace theorists mean by the term gists?

Identify the main procedures that can help to preserve the accuracy of children's eyewitness testimony.

Suppose you are an elementary-school teacher.What developmental trends and individual differences in attention might be useful for you to know when you are making curricular decisions and developing individual learning plans?

According to available evidence, people of all ages report more inaccurate information when asked leading questions that suggest inaccurate facts or events.Which age group is most susceptible to such memory distortions?

What is the memory system that holds large amounts of information for very brief periods of time?

Identify each of the three memory stores in Atkinson and Shiffrin's model of the human information-processing system, and note the capacity and duration of each store.

Distinguish between implicit cognition and explicit cognition, and identify the age-related changes in the two concepts.What does the current research imply about the developmental patterns each follows?

What memory system has the largest capacity?

Frankie's preschool teacher asks the class if it would be easier to remember the names of three types of birds or the names of five types of animals.If Frankie is a typical preschooler, what is he likely to answer?

What is the term for memories of events that we have personally experienced?

Your psychology professor asks you for the name of the individual who identified three different levels of moral development.To answer this question correctly, what type of memory will you need to use?

A 5-year-old relates her experience about going to the dentist: "You get in the car, drive there, get out, go inside, wait, get in the dental chair, get teeth fixed, jump from the chair, walk to the car, and go home." How would a psychologist characterize this child's memory strategy?

Identify two differences as to how language may partially explain observed differences in mathematical skills between students of different cultures.

Which of the following best characterizes the process of rehearsal?

Which maturational change has been identified as the source of age-related improvements in children's processing speed?

In comparison to an information-processing theorist, how would a Piagetian theorist view the role of a teacher?