Cognitive Information Processing (1)

This week our assigned chapter is Cognitive Information Processing. It says human learner is a processor of information in much the way a computer is.

When learning occurs, information is input from the environment, processed and stored in memory, and output is the form of some learned capability.

It is so interesting that what I was teaching in computer organization become my study subject. Only difference is the present subject deals with human. In both the case, the processing steps are Input, Process, Output and store. In the case of a computer data is given to process as information. In the case of human Stimuli become inputs and behavior becomes the output and what happens in between is the information processing.

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) proposed the multi-store, multistage theory of memory. “From the time information is received by the processing system, it undergoes a series of transformations until it can be permanently stored in memory.

Information Processing has different stages. Sensory memory is the first. Lot of data from outside world enters through our senses. All the five senses, Sight, Hearing, Smell, Touch and Taste have different processing capabilities. Sight is the major sense. Hearing is another important sense. At this point I think it is appropriate to remember the difference between “data” and “information”. Data is the row information. Data on its own has no meaning, but becomes information when it is processed. Information is a collection of facts or data. Sensory memory holds the data for a very short period.

Data is transferred to Working memory for further processing. It is linked to Consciousness. Long-term memory is the permanent memory. The processed data or the information is stored in this memory. I see myself as an information-treating organism with sensory capacities and memory load limits.

The capacity of the humans’ long-tem memory is virtually limitless. The human brain has the potential to store huge amounts of information. The problem is not in the storage but in the retrieval.


(Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc..)