Information Processing Theory
In this paper I will be discussing the information processing theory in children, describing the components of the information processing theory, defining the components and their functions. I will also be discussing the summary of the interrelationships among the components and explaining the need to move information through the model. Explaining how the child processes information and how it changes with age.
Information processing theory is the theoretical perspective that focuses on the specific ways in which people mentally thinks about (“process”) the information they receive. People process information in different ways; sensation, perception, sensory registers, working memory, and long-term memory. Sensation is the physiological detection of stimuli in the environment. Perception is the cognitive interpretation of stimuli that the body has sensed. Sensory register is the component of memory that holds incoming information in an unanalyzed form for a very brief time; this is two to three seconds or less. Working memory is the component of memory that enables people to actively think about and process a small amount of information. Long-term memory is the component of memory that holds knowledge and skills for a relatively long period of time.
Sensory register information processing is believe that human memory includes a Sensation information processing is through environmental the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. This is the first process continued by the second part, interpreting those stimuli for perception mechanism that allows people to remember a very short period of time only perhaps two to three seconds of information. Working memory is where most thinking, or cognitive processing, occurs. Long-term memory is components learned throughout the years of experience.
The following is the steps of the model of the human information processing system. For a person’s learning and memory processes to work effectively, the mechanism which is also called the central executive, oversees the flow of information throughout the memory system, and is critical for planning, decisions making, self-regulation, and inhibition of unproductive thoughts and behaviors. Sensory register with the environmental input is what holds the data for a very brief period of time, two to three seconds. Attention involves active focusing on information this is the key to the learning process. Then falls the working memory this allows active processing of information has a short duration less than a minute and it has a limited capacity. In-depth processing which are rehearsal, organization, and elaboration also often involves making connections between new information and existing knowledge to be in long term memory. Long term memory this last section if we have the in depth processing right, stores accumulated knowledge and skills; has a long duration and unlimited capacity.
As a child’s ability to learn in their sensation and perception development occurs in infancy. In infancy research involves observing what infants prefer to look at. The way you can tell an infant is aware of the sensation and perception, is by the infant sucking harder on a pacifier that is placed in their mouth, or their heart rate and blood pressure changes. For infants many sensory and perceptual capabilities, such as visual acuity, visual focusing, color discrimination, and the ability to locate the source of sounds, continue to improve during the first two years of their lives. Visual perception is not fully developed until preschool years.
The attention in a child development is due, in part to the brain maturation, and in particular to the continuing development of the cortex in the first few years of life. Human beings with infants included often focus attention and show physiological changes when a new stimulus. When a child is about four weeks old, infants show distinct ways of attending to their primary caregivers. They have longer and may engage in a repetitive cycle of paying attention and then withdrawing it. Their attention is influenced by the fact that the person who is the focus of their attention. With age distractibility decreases and sustained attention increases. They are captivated by an object or event. Over time children become better able to focus and sustain their attention on a particular task, and they are less distracted by irrelevant stimuli. Their attention becomes increasingly purposeful, by preschool years their attention specifies to get help in learning and remembering. Their ability to use it effectively continues to improve during the elementary and middle school years.
The working memory of a child is the component of the human information processing system where active, conscious thinking occurs. When children grow older they become capable of thinking about a greater number of things at once and performing more complex cognitive tasks. The developmental trend is the combined results of three more specific trends. As the infants get older the processing speed increases, children execute many cognitive processes more quickly and efficiently. The older the children become they can make comparisons among similar stimuli, and retrieve information from long-term memory. Their processing speed will continue to increase, and thus the time required to execute many mental tasks continues to decrease, until early adulthood, (R. Kail, 1993). The time and practice it takes children to be able to perform certain mental and physical tasks very quickly and with little or no conscious efforts, they become automatized.
A child long term memory is an active processing center, long-term memory is a repository for the information and skills that people gather over the years. Children have the capacity to learn and remember even before they are born. Study showed that when mothers read to their unborn child a few weeks before the birth, shows that when they read the same passage when they were born got excited with showing a higher rate in their sucking when they heard the familiar voice. Children and adults sometimes organize their knowledge into what psychologists call schemas and scripts. A schema is tightly integrated set of ideas about a specific object or situation. A script is schema that involves a predictable sequence of events related to a common activity.
Children’s thinking and reasoning many developmental changes in thought processes reflect qualitative changes in the mental strategies that children use to learn and problem solve and thoughts become increasingly symbolic in nature. Logical thinking improves and often changes qualitatively over time. With time the trend is toward more logical thinking with age. Children or adolescent is apt to reason more logically on some occasions than others, even with similar problems. Hand gestures appear to provide a way for children to experiment with new ideas. This also may alleviate the strain on working memory as a child first begins to have more complex ways of thinking.
The implications of information processing theory with children and adolescents, it has to provide a variety of choices for infants and young children. Infants, toddlers and preschoolers should have a wide range of toys and other objects to change their play and their environment for movement and exploring. Children should have enough options, to identify activities and playthings that are within their current abilities cognitive development. Learning occurs in a large through play rather than work in their early years in life. They should have enough of world’s activities, quiet activities and large or small activity groups. Talking to the children about their experience, by talking to the children about their experience enhances children’s memories.
Keeping unnecessary distractions to a minimum, is also a implications of information processing because children are easily distracted by sound and sight around them this happen especially to younger children. As per adults, children, and adolescents best efforts even highly motivated high school students cannot keep their minds on a single tasks forever. Some young adults have a more difficult time paying attention than others; this could be caused by seemingly boundless supply of physical energy or perhaps because of a cognitive, emotional, or behavioral disability. When you are a child through adolescence the working memory capacity increases, but young and older people can mentally manipulate only a very limited amount of material in their heads at once. Giving the children ongoing practice in using basic information and skills, are fundamental skills given to growing children to become able to retrieve and use them quickly and effortlessly.
I believe in the environment and heredity influence intelligence and information processing, not only from what I have read of things brought into perspective but also from experience of being a parent of three, a sixteen year old, a thirteen year old, and a six year old. I have concluded the identity of components of the information processing theory; I have defined the components and their functions. I have described the interrelationship among the components, and detailed the child processes information as the child grows older.

References
McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. E. (2004). Child development: Educating and working with children and adolescents (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.