Chapter 7:

Cognitive Processes and Academic Skills

Chapter 7: Cognitive Processes and Academic Skills

Chapter 7 has three modules:

Module 7.1 Memory

Module 7.2 Problem Solving

Module 7.3 Academic Skills

Memory

Origins of Memory

Overview• Memory origins laid

down in early life

• 2-3 mos: past events remembered but recall decreased over time

• Cue can elicit forgotten memory

Origins of Memory: Brain Development and Memory

Infants remember and forget, and can be prompted to remember forgotten things

• Improvements in memory are related to brain growth• Amygdala• Hippocampus• Frontal cortex

Strategies for Remembering

Memory strategies: activities that improve remembering

• Preschoolers use simple strategies

• Older children and adolescents use organization, elaboration, and rehearsal

Do you know the difference between these?

Strategies for Remembering

• Metacognition

• Metamemory

• Metacognitive knowledge

Metacognitive Knowledge

Important Features• Cognitive self-

regulation

• Understanding of connections among goals, strategies, monitoring, and outcomes

Knowledge and Memory

Knowledge helps to organize memory but can distort recall

• Scripts• Autobiographical memory• Infantile amnesia• Preschoolers’ testimony

Effects of Knowledge on Memory

• Adults remember more numbers than children

• 10-year-olds recall object positions more accurately

Do you know why?

Network of Knowledge

Fuzzy Trace Theory

• Memories stored verbatim or in gist form

• Older children represent memories in gist form instead of verbatim

Autobiographical Memory and Infantile Amnesia

Autobiographical memory

Infantile amnesia

Eyewitness Testimony

Memory distortion may occur with • Inappropriate questionings• Overheard comments• Conversations of adults or peers

Eyewitness Testimony: Interviewing Strategies

Problem Solving

Developmental Trends in Problem Solving

• Problem solving effectiveness increases with age

• Research shows that even young children sometimes show remarkable skill

• Adolescents often prone to error

Features of Child and Adolescent Problem Solving

Scientific Problem Solving

Children and even adolescents exhibit faulty scientific reasoning

• Confound variables• Reach conclusions prematurely• Have difficulty integrating theory and data

True or False?

Even young children can be trained to think more scientifically.

Academic Skills

Reading

Reading in a complex learning process• Prereading skills (phonological awareness)

• Reading skills • Sounding out and whole word recognition• Comprehension• Recognizing words and decoding• Changes in working memory, knowledge,

monitoring, and reading strategies improve comprehension

Reading

Readers use:• Context to recognize letters and words• Direct retrieval• Phonics• Complementary phonics strategies

Factors Related to Improved Comprehension

Writing

Older writers• Know how to organize their writing• Deal better with mechanical requirements of

writing• Are better able to revise• Have more to tell

Factors Related to Improved Writing

Knowing and Using Numbers

Babies learn that quantity or amount is related to object differences.

Knowing and Using Numbers

Early counting follows 3 basic principles• one-to-one principle• stable-order principle• cardinality principle

Children use many different, multiple strategies

Knowing and Using Numbers

Adding and Subtracting• 4 to 5 year olds encounter simple arithmetic

problems • Counting aloud and finger counting

strategies

Knowing and Using Numbers

Math skills lower in U.S. than many other countries.

Do you know why?

Educational Implications: What the Japanese System Teaches Us