Copyright © 2003 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

The four PASS processes are concepts that are used to describe how people think, learn, and solve problems. PASS processes are similar to the concepts of ability, aptitude, or intelligence because they provide information about how “smart” a child is. This theory describes four types of abilities, but we prefer to think about them as basic psychological processes. The choice of these particular cognitive processes is based on research about the brain and how it works, in particular, the Russian neuropsychologist A.R. Luria’s views (1966, 1973, 1980) about how the human brain processes information.

Research findings about how the brain works and the cognitive processes involved can help school psychologists, teachers, and parents better understand a child’s abilities and his or her cognitive processing strengths or weaknesses. This information can also help adults understand why the child may be good or weak in some academic areas. This information can then be used to select ways of teaching the child. For example, if the teacher knows that a child is weak in a particular type of cognitive processing, he or she should avoid using an instruction method that relies considerably on that type of thinking.

In order for a child to complete an academic task such as math calculation, for example, many factors are involved. First, the child has to be interested, willing, alert, focused, and emotionally ready to perform the task. Second, the child needs to have the basic skills (i.e., knowledge) relevant to the problem (e.g., knowledge of math facts). Third, the child needs to have the ability to think in order to solve the problem. What type of thinking is needed depends on the demands of the task. Some tasks require a considerable amount of planning and strategizing in order to arrive at the correct answer. Other parts of the task may require careful attention to the details, and still others may involve understanding the sequence of events or how various parts of the problem are related. Cognitive processes are needed for learning, and knowledge is important for the use of processes. Because processes are important when a child applies his or her knowledge and skills, it is important to know when a child has a cognitive strength or weakness. When teachers and parents understand that a child’s poor academic performance may be related to a cognitive processing problem, then they can better select instructional methods. But first a better understanding of the psychological processes, the different ways of thinking, and how they relate to learning is needed.

Planning

The first cognitive process is called planning. Planning is a way of thinking that a person uses to evaluate a task, select or develop a way of doing something (i.e., a strategy to approach a task), monitor progress, and develop new strategies when necessary. This process provides control of thought as well as the use of other processes, knowledge, and skills. For example, when a child is faced with a task that demands that he or she figure out a way to do it, then planning is involved. Sometimes the way children are taught can involve planning. Children who cannot plan well struggle with how to do things. They may use the same strategy even if it is not very effective, and they are often disorganized.

Attention

Attention is a way of thinking that allows a child to focus on one thing and ignore others. Resisting distractions in the environment is an important part of attention. In the classroom, this process allows a child to selectively focus on things heard or seen (e.g., the teacher) and resist being distracted by less relevant sights and sounds (e.g., children talking outside the room). For example, in the math problem “What is the number for 5 tens and 2 ones?” the child must pick from several similar answers. Because these options are so similar, there are many distractions. This makes it hard for the child to determine which option is the correct one. The “respond” or “do not respond” situation demands considerable attention. Children who score high in attention processing can concentrate well and resist distractions. Those who score low have trouble focusing on what is important, working on the same task for very long, concentrating on one topic, and seeing all of the details.

Simultaneous Processing

The third process is simultaneous processing, which a child uses to relate separate pieces of information into a group or to see how parts are related as a whole. Simultaneous processing is also used when a child has to recognize patterns. For this reason, simultaneous processing is important for doing geometry, seeing patterns in numbers, seeing a group of letters as a word, seeing words as a whole, understanding a sentence as part of a paragraph, and seeing how a paragraph fits as part of a complete story. Simultaneous processing is involved in reading comprehension because it requires the integration and understanding of word relationships and how all of the elements of a text fit together. Seeing how an image should look from the various perspectives involves simultaneous processing. Children who are good at simultaneous processing easily understand how pieces of a whole fit together. Children who score low in this process do not understand how things are related, have trouble with spatial relationships, and often miss the overall idea.

Successive Processing

The fourth process is successive processing, which is what a child uses to work with information that is arranged in order. Whenever information must be organized or kept in specific order so that the parts are correctly sequenced, successive processing is involved. Successive processing is also important whenever comprehension is based on appreciation of the order of events. For instance, successive processing is involved in remembering a series of words or numbers and blending sounds to form words because the child has to do things in a specific order. Children who have strong successive processing are able to remember things in order, work with information that is linearly organized, and follow instructions that are presented in sequence. Children who have weak successive processing struggle to arrange information in a specific sequence, understand information presented in sequence, or remember information in a series.

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