Read the text: Information processing theory (Part II)

The information processing theory approach to the study of cognitive development evolved out of the American experimental tradition in psychology. Developmental psychologists who adopt the information-processing perspective account for mental development in terms of maturational changes in basic components of a child’s mind. The theory is based on the idea that humans process the information they receive, rather than merely responding to stimuli. This perspective equates the mind to a computer, which is responsible for analyzing information from the environment. According to the standard information-processing model for mental development, the mind’s machinery includes attention mechanisms for bringing information in, working memory for actively manipulating information, and long term memory for passively holding information so that it can be used in the future. This theory addresses how as children grow, their brains likewise mature, leading to advances in their ability to process and respond to the information they received through their senses. The theory emphasizes a continuous pattern of development, in contrast with Cognitive Developmental theorists such as Jean Piaget that thought development occurred in stages.

Beginning in the 1950s, a major change occurred in the field of Psychology that has come to be known as the Cognitive Revolution. The cognitive revolution took form as what is now known as “Cognitive Psychology”. This field of psychology had freed itself from the behaviorist views that were dominant in the 1950s. It wanted to look at the “interior” mental processes, rather than the observable “exterior” views that behaviorism held. This revolution had a huge impact on theory and research in the field of psychology, as well as many other disciplines, such as human-computer interaction, human factors and ergonomics. Overall, information-processing models helped reestablish internal thought processes as a legitimate area of scientific research.

A central metaphor that was adopted by cognitivists at this time was the computer, which served to provide these researchers important clues and directions in understanding the human brain and how it processes information. Many psychologists and researchers believe that the Information Processing Theory was influenced by computers, in that the human mind is similar to a computer. However, today the metaphor of mind as computer has faded. The analogy has much strength, in that humans have different memory stores and information is transferred from one store to another, however it does little to actually explain how.

Model of memory systems

The standard information-processing model has three major components: sensory register, short-term memory (working memory), and long-term memory.

Еаch sensory system hаs its own sensory store, which receives and holds, аlthough very briefly, all the externаl аnd internal stimuli. The sensоry stоres hоld оntо the sensory information long enough so that unconscious рrоcesses may орerate оn these traces tо determine whether the inрut shоuld be brought intо the wоrking memory, оr discarded.

Working memory is believed to be the center of conscious thought, analogous to the “central processing unit” of a computer, where information from long-term memory and the environment is combined to help solve problems. However, the working memory has a small capacity so that it is not able to attend to much information at a time, thereby limiting the abilities of humans to solve problems. The information processing perspective proposes that as children grow until about 15 years old, their working memory capacity for verbal/visual information also steadily increases, as demonstrated by improved performance on fluid intelligence tests. Many proponents of the information processing system correlate this increased working-memory capacity with increased speed of processing, the speed at which a person can fluently carry out relatively elementary information-processing tasks. It is believed that the physical maturation of the brain that occurs throughout childhood may cause faster processing speeds. This faster processing speed permits faster mental movement from one item of information to another, which improves one’s ability to keep track of a number of different items in working memory at once.

Long-term memory is the stored representation of all that a person knows. The items stored in long-term memory lie dormant until they are called back into the working memory and thus put to use.

Long-term memory consists of explicit and implicit long-term memory systems. Children exhibit implicit long-term memory – memories that affect behavior, but with which we are unable to report, such as procedural memories – beginning in early infancy on. There also exist two categories of explicit memory: semantic and episodic memory. Children exhibit the ability to form semantic memories as quickly as when they learn words, which possibly aids the development of vocabulary. In contrast, episodic memories develop relatively slowly, appearing at about 3 years of age when children are able to answer questions reliably about past experiences.

Many psychologists believe that the ability to form episodic memories increases gradually throughout childhood due to continued maturation of the brain, particularly in the prefrontal lobes. Proponents of the information processing theory make sense of the development of memory systems, from implicit → semantic → episodic, in terms of childhood developmental needs.

Social influences‍‍

One's culture greatly influences how one remembers bits of information by how the culture emphasizes various elements, emotions, or even events. As the text discusses, children can manage and handle more information at once due to increased capacity, and “because new information can be packaged into preexisting categories and structures”. The knowledge gained, however, is not obtained without interaction with the child’s external environment. Attitudes and beliefs about gender, race, sex roles, etc. greatly influence how a child processes and recalls information. Beck (1975) suggests that as we develop we learn how to process external stimuli, and these messages are processed, interpreted and incorporated into one’s internal schemas. For example, children in a school setting who are taught that men and women occupy certain gender-stereotypic jobs are thus more likely to process information through such a “filter". The text points out that children may even reconstruct images later to fit with their schema of a particular occupation. This relates to the construction of scripts, which are assumptions or expectations about what is supposed to happen in a particular situation. They can greatly influence how a child remembers events and may potentially lead to assumptions about people, events, etc.

I. Answer the questions:

1. What is theory of information processing based on?

2. What does this theory describe?

3. When did a major change in the field of Psychology occur?

4.  Why do scientists decide that the human mind is similar to a computer?

5. What does the long-term memory consist of?