Information Processing Approach

Information Processing Approach

                The information processing 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.

What is learning?

It requires the following procedures.

The individual first thinks. Perceives or reacts to the environment. The change is clearly the result of one’s experiences-that is attribution or repletion, study practice or observation one has made rather than heredity.

The change is relatively permanent. Facts, thoughts, and behaviour that are acquired and immediately forgotten have not been really learned and temporary change due to fatigue, illness or drug do not qualify as learning process.

The four main steps of IPA

1.      When the individual perceives, encodes, represents and stores information from the environment in his mind or retrieves that information, he is thinking. Thinking also includes responding to any constraints or limitations on memory processes. 

2.      The power focus of study is the role of change mechanism in development. Four critical mechanisms work together to bring about change in children’s cognitive skills: encoding, strategy construction, automatisation and generalization. 

3.      Development is driven by self-modification. Like Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the information processing approach holds that children play an active role in their own development. Through self-modification, the child uses knowledge and strategies she has acquired from earlier problem to modify her responses to a new situation or problem. In this way, she builds newer and more sophisticated responses from prior knowledge. 

4.      Investigators must perform careful task analysis of the problem situations they present to children. According to this view, not only the child’s own level of development but the nature of the task itself constraints child’s performance. Thus a child may possess the basic ability necessary to perform a particular task when it is presented in a simple form without necessary complexities. However, if extra or misleading information is added to the same task, the child may become confused and be unable to perform it.

John William Atkinson

John William Atkinson, (December 31, 1923 – October 27, 2003) also known as an American psychologist, pioneered the scientific study of human motivation, achievement and behaviour. He was a World War II veteran, teacher, scholar and long term member of the university of Machigan community.

According to John William Atkinson and Schifrin, computer has memories like people. Both have two types of memory: 1. Temporary working memory known as random access memory 2. A large and permanent memory in which information is stored for long period (hardware). Certainly computers do not work like human beings. Unless you correctly specify the precise nature and location of information you want to find in the computer it is unable to recover or find it. But human beings can remember or partially remember an event when it is needed or on the partial description. 

Therefore the human mind adopts the following strategy:

1.      Encoding or converting information into a form that can be entered into memory.

2.      Storage or retaining information over varying periods of time (the process through which information is retained is memory).

3.      Retrieval locating and accessing specific information when it is needed at later times. [The process through which information stored in memory is located

Types of Memory

The Modal Model or Most representative Model which was proposed by Atkinson and Schifrin has 3 kinds of memory System.

1] Distinct memory or Sensory Memory provides temporary storage of information brought by our senses. If you ever have watched someone wave a flash light in a dark room and perceived what seemed to be traits of light behind it, you are familiar with the operation of sensory memory.

2] The second type of memory is known as Short Term Memory (STM).
The STM holds relatively small amount of information for a brief periods of time, usually thirty seconds or less. Ex when we look up a number and dial immediately.

3] Long term Memory system allows us to retain vast amount of information for a very long time. Ex At the thought of 26.11.08 blast in Mumbai enables us to remember 11.9.2001 blast of WDC.

It is the Active Control process that act as filters determining which information will be retained. Sensory information that does not engage Attention fades and disappears quickly. So when memory is concerned it is
 

Selective Attention, - our ability to pay attention to only some aspects of the world around us while largely ignoring others often play a crucial role with regard to memory.

In contrast – information in STM evolves to long term storage through elaborate rehearsal when we think about, its memory and relate it to other information the memory is already in long term memory. Thus the information process takes place in the following way using sensory, STM and LTM system.

The store model: A model of information procession in which information is depicted as moving through a series of processing units- sensory register, short term memory, long term memory- in each of which it may be stored, either fleeting or permanently.

Sensory register: the mental processing unit that receives information from the environment and stores it fleetingly.

Short term memory: the mental procession unit in which information may be store temporarily; the work space of the mind, where a decision must be made to discard information or to transfer it to permanent storage, in long – term memory.

Long–term memory: the encyclopaedic mental procession unit in which information may be stored permanently and from which it may be later retrieved.

Criticism

Models based upon Information Processing Theory takes a somewhat simplistic view of cognitive processing, with information processing being viewed as a largely linear process. This model does not take into account simultaneous or parallel processing. Another example where the linear model, which suggest rehearsal is required to encode information in long term memory, is likely faulty occurs in cases of trauma, where information can be encoded automatically and without rehearsal due to a single exposure to traumatic stimuli. ‍‍The metaphor of the computer is off-putting to many, who dislike comparing human beings to machines. Additionally, no current computer program can truly simulate the full range of human cognition.‍‍

Computer constructed models that are based upon this theory are highly complex and again cannot take into account all nuances of human thought despite their complexity. Information Processing Theory does not account for fundamental developmental changes, or changes to the "hardware" of the brain. For example, how do humans gain the ability to utilize representational thought utilizing language? How do people develop "formal operations" thinking, such as abstract logical or social thinking when they previously thought in "concrete" ‍‍terms?‍‍

There is an excessive focus on internal cognitive processes, with little attention being paid to environmental influences or the nature of the external stimuli the individual is exposed to. Additionally, the impact of emotions or behaviours on cognitive processing or interpretation is not sufficiently included in this model. For example, the information processing model does not consider how an individual can process a stimuli differently if they are angry versus if they are in a calm state. The information processing model is described as being universal, with little attention being paid to individual differences or cultural differences.

Conclusion

In the store model of the human information processing system, information from the environment that we acquire through our senses enters through the sensory register. Encodes, followed by strategy construction, then automatisation then generalisation.