Fuzzy Trace Theory

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The fuzzy trace theory is a psychological theory of cognitive development that can be roughly assigned to information processing theories .

According to the theory, humans encode experiences on a continuum from verbatim (literal) to fuzzy (fuzzy). The content of a saved issue contains the most important relationships, but only a few details. "Blurred" tracks can be activated with less effort, "literal" tracks are more easily forgotten. It is assumed that children up to seven years of age try to memorize as much "literal" information as possible, while older children and adults tend to save "fuzzy" information. Children take longer to process facts because their cognitive resources are occupied with memorizing verbatim details. As a result, they cannot filter out unimportant information as well and are therefore more likely to be subject to interference than young people and adults.

When solving some tasks one needs rather "fuzzy" information, with others "literal" information: It is assumed that the exact representation of the information is less important than the summarized storage of the information. With this intuitive and imprecise information, however, problems are more difficult to solve.

The cognitive triage effect is used as the justification for this model. It says that contents of memory are reproduced in the order weak-strong-weak.

literature

  • Gerhild Nieding (2006): How do children understand texts? The development of cognitive representations. Pabst Science Publishers: Lengerich, Berlin.
  • CJ Brainerd and V. E Reyna (1991). Fuzzy-Trace Theory and Cognitive Triage in Memory Development. Developmental Psychology, 27 (3), 351-369.