| information-processing approach | A perspective on Cognition and cognitive development in which the human mind is likened to a computer, processing information from the environment through perception and attention (input), encoding it in memory (storage and retrieval), and applying information to the solution of problems (software).
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| store model | A model of information processing in which information is depicted as moving through a series of processing units-sensory register, short-term memory, and long-term memory-in each of which it may be stored, either fleetingly or permanently.
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| sensory register | The mental processing unit that receives information from the environment and stores it fleetingly.
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| short-term memory | The mental processing unit in which information may be stored temporarily; the "work space" of the mind, where a decision must be made to discard information or to transfer it to permanent storage, in Long-term memory.
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| long-term memory | The encyclopedic mental processing unit in which information may be stored permanently and from which it may later be retrieved.
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| level of processing model | An information-processing model that proposes that the intensity of processing applied to information determines how long it will be retained.
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| encoding | The transformation of information from the environment into a lasting mental representation.
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| mental representation | Information stored in some form (e.g., verbal, pictorial) in the cognitive system after the person has encountered it in the environment.
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| strategies | Conscious cognitive or behavioral activities that are used to enhance mental performance.
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| automatization | The process of transforming conscious, controlled behaviors into unconscious and automatic ones.
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| generalization | The application of a strategy learned while solving a problem in one situation to a similar problem in a new situation.
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| neo-Piagetian theories | Theories of cognitive development that are grounded in Piagetian theory but reinterpret Piaget's concepts in an information-processing context.
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| executive control structure | According to Case, a mental blueprint or plan for solving a class of problems.
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| enrichment theory | The notion that the child acquires additional information about an object from each repeated experience with it, further modifying and enriching these data with information in existing schemata.
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| differentiation theory | The notion that the child learns to identify and discriminate the important features of objects and relationships from the rich source of information sensory input provides.
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| memory span | The amount of information one can hold in short-term memory.
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| prospective memory | Memory for information that one plans to use at a given future time.
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| rehearsal | A memory strategy in which one repeats a number of times, either mentally or orally, the information one wants to remember.
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| mediation deficiency | Inability to use strategies to store information in long-term memory.
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| production deficiency | Inability spontaneously to generate and use memory strategies that one knows.
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| utilization deficiency | inability to use a memory strategy that one knows.
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| sematic organization | Organizing information to be remembered by means of categorization and hierarchical relationships.
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| elaboration | A memory strategy in which one adds to information to make it more meaningful and thus easier to place in long-term memory.
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| world knowledge | What a child has learned from experience and knows about the world in general.
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| script | A mental representation of an event or situation of daily life, including the expected orde4 in which things happen and how one should behave in that event or situation.
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| mental map | A cognitive representation of the spatial layout of a physical or geographical place.
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| transitive inference | The mental arrangement of things along a quantitative dimension.
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| hierarchical categorization | The organization of concepts into levels of abstraction that range from the specific to the general.
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| metacognition | The individual's knowledge and control of cognitive activities.
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| reciprocal teaching | A method of instruction which a teacher and a small group of students take turns leading discussions of text passages and which makes use of four specific cognitive strategies: predicting, questioning, summarizing, and clarifying.
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