Information Processing Approach

Information Processing Approach
Introduction
The idea that age plays a paramount role in the development of cognitive skills is correct. The more individuals grow older, so as their speed of processing information increases. This is because their brains are more advanced compared to children. Attention is also different depending on age with children and infants. Information processing approach explains analyses how human being encodes, manipulate, monitor information and create strategies to handle the information. The approach also states that the effective information processing involves three elements like thinking, memory and attention.
Body
Consequently, the approach also explains that in the development of cognitive approach, there are three mechanisms of change that works together in the encoding process. This is explained as the process in which the information is received in the memory, atomicity. This is also the ability to process information with ease or little effort and strategy. Furthermore, it is also described as the creation of new procedure to process the information (Santrock, 224). In summary, the information processing approach describes the process of developing cognitive skills as having a simple model of three stages, that is, attention, memory, and thinking. Encoding is an Activity between Attention and Memory
In order to understand this approach, I did unobtrusive observation study using students learning in a school as subjects. In early stages of the learning process of a child, the teacher concentrates on teaching them simple things such as naming objects.

The teacher points on an object and the children are expected to recognize it or name it. To begin with, the teacher starts with simpler objects that are common in the child’s life. At the start, the children name the objects with a little difficulty. As the object is repeated time and again, the picture sticks in the child’s mind and with time the children are able to recognize the object with little or no effort. As the child grows, the teacher moves from teaching using pictures and asking the child to name objects into teaching the child to memorize simpler things like alphabets, numbers and later write them. Furthermore, their proficiency rises with the increase in their age. Therefore, soon they are taught how to read and write.
At these stages, the teacher uses creative methods of teaching in order to attract the child’s attention such as the use of various games or books that contain allot of interesting pictures. Another observation is that the books used for learning in the lower grades contain a lot of pictures that are constantly repeated from page to another. This helps the children in stick the picture in their minds as and retains them in their memory for learning purpose. Some of the games are used to help the child in memorizing things such the months in a calendar, letters in an alphabet, numbers among others.
As the children progress, their memories advance and the teacher move from teaching simple alphabets into help the child constructing words using the alphabets. It begins with simple words and progresses words with children having difficulty in learning the spelling at the beginning and later with ease as the words stick in their minds. They also start learning the mathematics of addition at first, then subtraction to multiplication and division at later stages. By the time they are completing their elementary level, these children have learned simple calculations and are able to memorize them. However, they need the presence of a teacher or an adult in order to be able to handle their homework.
In addition to what the child learned at the elementary level, at this stage the child starts learning about constructing sentences and learning vocabularies. Teaching materials at this stage can be seen to contain more complex words, and their context has advanced from the just construction of sentences into the use of punctuation appropriately. Though still having interesting contents to with their attention, the materials start concentrating more on theory than practical use of drawings to learn. The teachers also concentrate more on classroom than the use of games in teaching. During their homework, the child is given time to do their homework on their own with an adult regularly checking on them. This is mainly because, at this stage, the child has developed some attention skills and can be able to concentrate on their homework without losing focus. The concentration is, however, not developed enough and their attention is like to be diverted to other things such as cartoons on the television. Therefore, they require the presence of an adult to remind them what they are supposed to do constantly.
In high school, the memory of the child is developed, and the books of learning are seen to be complex. The children start learning about the use of formulae in mathematics and the subjects also increase. At this stage, there are no games as the students are able to focus their attention on class. Their workload in their syllable is increased, and materials used for learning are more complex compared to young kids. Also, it can be seen from their books that there are sections of exercise which the students are supposed to do on their own to gauge whatever they have learned with the teacher.
In this observation, information processing approach plays a vital role in the way the school curriculum is developed. As a student moves up, they grade the materials, and the content gets advanced starting from simple books with pictures only in the lower grades to more materials with detailed contents as you move up the ladder to the senior high school to colleges and universities.
Besides, the method of instructions also gets advanced depending on the level of attention that the students of a particular grade and age are assumed to have developed. This is, however, in the exemption to students with particular. As it can be seen, students at the university level are assumed to have more developed memories that their materials are very advance with complex information. The mode of instruction is quite different as they are less monitored and left to work on their own since their attention is more focused and are organized, therefore, can be able to make decisions on their own and focus their attention on what matter. Their learning materials are also detailed since their level, and speed of processing is higher and can process a lot of information within the stipulated timeline, which is the semester.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I was able to put in practice and understand the information processing approach. This provides the idea that age plays a paramount role in the development of cognitive skills. The more individuals grow older, so as their speed of processing information increases. This is because their brains are more advanced compared to children. Attention is also different depending on age with children and infants. For example, they tend to be more inclined joint and sustained attention while the adults exercise various types of attention depending on the circumstances facing them. However, during my study, I was unable to point out if the speed of processing information decreases as the adults grow older or not. This was mainly, due to the fact, I was conducting an unobtrusive study. Therefore, I was unable to interact directly with the subjects and measure their speed of processing information. I was also not able to prove that health and exercise contribute to the speed as my observation was one afternoon and had not interacted with the participants to be able to know anything about their life apart from what I was observing on the spot.
Work Cited
BIBLIOGRAPHY Santrock, John W. A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development. McGraw-Hill Education, 2015.