Chapter 7: Cognitive Development: Cognitive Processes

Summary
Basic Cognitive Processes
Information processing theory focuses on how children receive, think about, mentally modify, and
remember information, and on how these cognitive processes change over the course of development.
Information processing theorists propose that cognitive capabilities improve gradually with age and
experience. Infants have many sensory and perceptual capabilities at birth or soon thereafter. In general,
however, children are less efficient learners than adults are. For instance, they have shorter attention
spans, a smaller working memory capacity, and a smaller and less integrated knowledge base to which
they can relate new information and events.
Metacognition and Cognitive Strategies
The term metacognition encompasses both the knowledge that people have about their own cognitive
processes and their intentional use of certain cognitive processes to facilitate learning and memory.
Children's metacognitive knowledge and cognitive strategies improve throughout the school years. For
instance, children become more proficient in such learning strategies as rehearsal, organization, and
elaboration, and they acquire increasingly powerful and effective ways of solving problems. With age, they
become more aware of the nature of thinking, learning, and knowledge, and they develop strategies for
regulating their own learning.
Adding a Sociocultural Element to Information Processing Theory
Information processing theory can tell us a great deal about what abilities change over time, and
sociocultural views can help us explain how those changes occur. Combining elements of both
perspectives, then, can give us a more complete picture of cognitive development than we might get from
either one alone. For example, children learn what to pay attention to in part by watching what other people
pay attention to. And adults can help children become more effective, self-regulating learners by giving
them control of a learning activity in a gradual, step-by-step manner.
Children's Construction of Theories
Some theorists propose that children gradually construct integrated belief systems (theories) about the
physical world, the biological world, the social world, and mental events. Such theories are not always
accurate, however. For instance, children's theories about the physical world may include erroneous beliefs
about the solar system and laws of motion. To the extent that children's theories include misconceptions,
they may interfere with children's ability to acquire more sophisticated understandings.
Comparing and Critiquing Contemporary Approaches to Cognitive Development
Contemporary theories (e.g., information theory, theory theory) have added considerably to Piaget's and
Vygotsky's early notions of children's thinking and knowledge-building processes. Taken together, various

theoretical perspectives give us a more complete picture of cognitive development than any single
perspective alone can give us.
Exceptionalities in Information Processing
The information processing capabilities of some children are different enough that they require the use of
specially adapted instructional practices and materials. Children with learning disabilities have significant
difficulties in one or more specific cognitive processes. Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) either (1) have exceptional difficulty focusing attention on assigned tasks or (2) are unusually
hyperactive and impulsive for their age group, with many children exhibiting both of these characteristics.
Children with autism exhibit a marked impairment in social interaction, perhaps as a result of deficits in
certain areas of the brain or of extreme undersensitivity or oversensitivity to sensory stimulation.
Quiz
1. Which one of the following statements would information processing theorists probably make?
Human memory systems are comprised of a sensory register, working memory, and longterm memory.
2. Marissa was born one week ago. Which one of the following statements is true about her abilities?
She cannot discriminate between shallow and deep.
3. Which of the following vignettes best illustrates a true statement about thinking and reasoning?
After spending two years of not seeing the point, ten-year-old Lee is now able to see the
logic behind cleaning his room so he can find his toys.
4. With practice, children can perform mental tasks more quickly. Which statement gives a reason
why that is true?
Children's mental activities become increasingly more automatized.
5. Which of the following teachers illustrates a method used to promote the processing of
information?
Each morning, Mr. Snead allows his second graders to choose from several different
review games to reinforce the previous day's lesson.
6. Six-year-old Javier is performing a puppet show for his class. He titled it, "Frog's First Day at
School." Javier had Frog wait for the school bus, hop with his friend Rabbit to their classroom, and
put their backpacks in their cubbies. Javier is demonstrating a type of knowledge organization
known as what?
script
7. A common classroom practice is for teachers to create activities that relate new information to
students' existing knowledge base. Which one of the following teachers is engaging in this
practice?
Ms. Jones introduces the unit on subtraction by explaining that subtraction is the reverse of
addition.
8. Kindergarten teacher Mr. O'Meara learned in his teacher education program that five-year-old
children have short attention spans and are easily distractible. According to the textbook, what
should Mr. O'Meara do to increase the student attention span and reduce classroom distractions?
He should use a variety of activities every day.

9. For his child development class project, Kael decides to tape record six fourth-grade students as
they talk aloud about their studies on the Spanish Civil War. He is very interested in studying the
effectiveness of their learning strategies and their awareness of their own thought processes. Kael
is interested mostly in which of the following?
metacognitive awareness
10. A researcher told three-year-old and five-year-old children a story about a man who put peanut
butter in the cupboard. His wife later moved the peanut butter to the refrigerator. The researcher
then asked the children where the man would think the peanut butter was when he went to look for
it. The older children knew that the man would look in the cupboard. The younger children said that
he would look in the refrigerator. This example illustrates that the older children have what?
more sophisticated epistemological beliefs
11. Ms. Johnson's pre-school students are learning the names of various articles of clothing. Ms.
Johnson helps the students remember the items by asking them to name all the things they wear
on their feet, then name the things they wear on their legs, then on the arms and chest, then on the
hands, and then on the head. What strategy is Ms. Johnson using to help her students remember
the various articles of clothing?
organization
12. Mr. Abel gave an assignment to his 12th grade students. After reading a short story about
adolescents who were faced with moving to another city during their senior year, the students
created an analogy to their personal experiences with difficult changes in their life. What learning
strategy did the students use in this assignment?
elaboration
13. Rhonda's teacher has noted that Rhonda, age nine, experiences difficulties with schoolwork and
trouble maintaining friendships with her classmates. Rhonda seems to daydream a lot, makes
seemingly careless mistakes, and behaves impulsively. Which information processing
exceptionality probably best characterizes Rhonda?
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
14. Which one of the following teachers is best applying a strategy that the textbook recommends for
work with exceptional students (e.g., those with learning disabilities, autism, attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder, etc.)?
Mr. Johnson teaches his students useful memory strategies, such as mnemonics, to better
memorize the material.
15. We have learned that maintaining attention to the subject matter to be learned plays a crucial role
in stimulating self-regulation. One of the most effective ways of doing this is through personally
involving students with the subject matter. Which of the following scenarios indicates a teacher
using this strategy to help students learn new material?
Mr. Hart assigns his sixth-grade students to research the origin of their own heritage, to
interview a family relative or person who has immigrated to the United States from that
same country, and to write a biographical story of that person's experience