Information processing theory
Information processing theory is the 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.
In this way, the mind functions like a biological computer responsible for analyzing information from the environment.
[1] 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 information processing theory simplified is comparing the human brain to a computer or basic processor.
George Armitage Miller discovered the short-term memory can only hold 7 (plus or minus two) things at once.
[3] Semantic memory is made up of facts or information learned or obtained throughout life.
Overall, information-processing models helped reestablish mental processes—processes that cannot be directly observed—as a legitimate area of scientific research.
He researched the capacity of the working memory, discovering that people can only hold up to 7 plus or minus 2 items.
They explained that from the time information is received by the processing system, it goes through different stages to be fully stored.
Later in 1974 Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch would contribute more to the information processing theory through their own discoveries.
They deepened the understanding of memory through the central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketch pad.
The long-term memory is tapped into when there is a need to recall an event that happened in an individual's previous experiences.
[10] Later Alan Baddeley added a fourth element to the working memory model called the episodic buffer.
The central executive is a flexible system responsible for the control and regulation of cognitive processes.
It can be thought of as a supervisory system that controls cognitive processes, making sure the short-term store is actively working, and intervenes when they go astray and prevents distractions.
The visuospatial sketch pad is used to help the conscious imagine objects as well as maneuver through the physical environment.
[10] Cognitive processes include perception, recognition, imagining, remembering, thinking, judging, reasoning, problem solving, conceptualizing, and planning.
This theory views humans as actively inputting, retrieving, processing, and storing information.
Individuals innately vary in some cognitive abilities, such a memory span, but human cognitive systems function similarly based on a set of memory stores that store information and control processes determine how information is processed.
The “Nurture” component provides information input (stimuli) that is processed resulting in behavior and learning.
The qualitative and quantitative components often interact together to develop new and more efficient strategies within the processing system.
Dysfunctions can occur both at the individual level as well as within the family system itself, creating more targets for therapeutic change.
Cognitive psychologists Kahnemen and Grabe noted that learners has some control over this process.
This is influenced by many things including: Some research has shown that individuals with a high working memory are better able to filter out irrelevant information.
In particular, one study on focusing on dichotic listening, followed participants were played two audio tracks, one in each ear, and were asked to pay attention only to one.
It was shown that there was a significant positive relationship between working memory capacity and ability of the participant to filter out the information from the other audio track.
