CHapter 7: Information Processing & Motor Control

Question 1

Information processing approach based on:

Answer 1

 Computer science (human processing similar to)
 Communications theory (information coding and channel
capacity)
 Linguistics (language)

everything that we do is equated to the computer.

Question 2

Describe the basic information-processing model.

Answer 2

Information is encoded, stored, transformed, retrieved and acted upon

Sensory input (stimuli) –> processing (receptiors, CNS data processing) —> Output (motor response)

Question 3

What is the core of information-processing models and the prerequisite to the perception of information?

Answer 3

Attention

Question 4

Limited attention is…

Answer 4

when you attend to only one thing at a time

Question 5

Serial attention:

Answer 5

attend to one thing, and then another

difficult to combine certain activities
- ex: text and drive

Question 6

What are the concepts that are associated with attention & motor behavior?

Answer 6

 Alertness and preparation
 Individual’s limited capacity to process information
 Selective attention (ability to select and attend to meaningful info)

Question 7

What is alertness?

Answer 7

preparation of the system

Question 8

What is reaction time (RT)

Answer 8

interval of time between onset of stimulus and initiation of response

RT improves with age into 20s, stable until 60s

Question 9

Divided attention

Answer 9

Concentrating on more than one activity at the same time

Limited capacity to handle information from environment

Capacity must be divided so individual can execute specific
movement activity

 Interference occurs if another activity requires resources

 Differences in attending to tasks due to automation and
attention deployment skills

Question 10

Selective Attention

Answer 10

 Ability to attend to relevant information

“Cocktail party phenomenon”

Question 11

Describe the development of selective attention.

Answer 11

Infants 4 months have selective attention
 Steadily improves until early adolescence
 Attributed to experience and refinement of operational
functions

Question 12

Memory

Answer 12

Retention and subsequent retrieval of information

Question 13

Recognition

Answer 13

Noticing whether a stimulus is identical or similar to one
previously experienced

Question 14

Recall

Answer 14

More advanced form of memory; involves remembering a
stimulus that is not present

Question 15

In memory, developmental differences due primarily to processing strategies
rather than structural (capacity) increases T/F

Answer 15

T

Question 16

Memory Structures:

Short-term (working memory)

Answer 16

Limited capacity, storage duration not more than 30
seconds.
 Can recall only about 5–9 items (plus or minus two)
items.
 Chunking (grouping items to make larger collections) and
rehearsal help with memory.
 Memory span technique measures capacity

Question 17

Memory Structures:

Long-term memory

Answer 17

Seemingly unlimited capacity
 Long-term, permanent
 Unlimited duration (hours, days, years)

Question 18

Describe the Memory Systems and Their
Relationship to Motor Response

Answer 18

check slide 14

Question 19

Memory Abilities:

What are the early processing abilities?

Answer 19

 Recognition memory (shortly after birth)
 Habituation—reaction to stimulus declines
 Dishabituation—renewed
esponsiveness to a new,stimulus

 Observed in newborns, 5–12 month olds well developed

Question 20

Memory Abilities:

What is cued recall/contextual learning?

Answer 20

 Long-term memory shown in infants as young as 3 and 6
months of age
 Infant kicking experiments; evidence for contextual
learning
 Perfect retention 3–4 days after training
 At 6 months, can remember lining of crib

Question 21

Memory Abilities:

Short-term Memory Abilities

Answer 21

 Improves up to early adolescence
 Memory span increases from about two digits in 2- and 3-
year-olds to 71/2 digits in adults
 Coding, searching and recalling strategies difficult for
children
 Location easier to recall than distance

Question 22

Memory Abilities:

Describe Long-term Memory Abilities

Answer 22

 By age 2, children have long-term memory (NOT TRUE)
 Rehearsal/practicing memory strategy employed and efficient by about age 10, evident at age 5.
 By age 10 or 11, better able to retrieve information in
memory, but not as easily as adults.
 Little long-term memory loss with continuous motor skills
(such as riding a bike)
 Memory more easily lost with discrete motor tasks such
as kicking or throwing

adult do better

Question 23

Memory Abilities:

Knowledge

Answer 23

 Chess player study: children had better recall than adults
 Knowledge of game and chunking strategy key

not reliable study because children were part of the chess club while the adults hadn’t seen it.

Question 24

Memory Abilities

Metamemory

Answer 24

Knowledge or intuition that people have about memory
and themselves as memorizers
 Improves with age; adult-like by 10 years

meta memory DOES NOT grow at all.

Question 25

Give a summary of memory.

Answer 25

 Habituation (newborn)  Cued recall (3 months)  Contextual learning (6 months)  Short-term memory emerges at 6 months (not true, it is earlier), evident by 2 years, adult-like at 13  Long-term memory evident by 2 years, adult-like by 10 or 11  Encoding by 8 years  Metamemory by 10

Question 26

Processing speed...

Answer 26

 The rate of speed at which information is processed  Performance difference between children and adult

Question 27

Successful Motor Performance

Answer 27

 Perceptual recognition (attention)  Speed of memory functions  Neuromuscular response time

Question 28

______________ is basic measure of processing speed (bits per second)

Answer 28

Reaction Time (RT)

Question 29

 Reaction Time (RT) is basic measure of processing speed (bits per second)  Interval of time between onset of stimulus and initiation of motor response  Simple reaction time: when individual is asked to respond only to one stimulus  Choice reaction time: when individual is asked to respond to more complex information

Answer 29

higher reaction time = slower lower reaction time = faster

Question 30

 Hick’s Law

Answer 30

Reaction time increases as information load (complexity) increases (slower with complex tasks)

Question 31

Fitt’s Law

Answer 31

 Speed-accuracy trade-off  When performers attempt to do something more quickly, they typically do it less accurately