Information Processing Theory and Psychology

The human mind can be understood as a very complex computer, an intelligent machine.

A particularly influential stream within cognitivism has been information processing theory, which compares the human mind to a computer in order to develop models that explain how cognitive processes work and how they determine behavior.

In this article we will describe the main approaches and models of information processing theory. models of information processing theory.. We will also take a brief historical tour through the conception of the human being as a machine, proposed by all kinds of theorists for centuries but which reached its culmination with the emergence of this approach.

The theory of information processing

Information processing theory is a set of psychological models that conceive of the human being as an active processor of stimuli. conceive of human beings as active processors of the stimuli (information or inputs) that they (information or "inputs") that they obtain from their environment. This vision is opposed to the passive conception of people that characterizes other orientations, such as behaviorism and psychoanalysis.

These models are included in cognitivism, a paradigm that argues that thoughts and other mental contents influence behavior and must be distinguished from it. They became popular in the 1950s as a reaction to the behaviorist position, predominant at the time, which conceived of mental processes as forms of behavior.

The research and theoretical models developed within the framework of this perspective have been applied to a large number of mental processes. Of particular note is the particular emphasis on cognitive development. particular emphasis on cognitive developmentThe information processing theory analyzes both the brain structures themselves and their relationship with maturation and socialization.

The theorists of this orientation defend a fundamentally progressive conception of cognitive development, which is opposed to the cognitive-evolutionary models based on stages, such as that of Jean Piaget, focused on the qualitative changes that appear as children grow (and which are also recognized from information processing).

The human being as a computer

The models that emerge from this approach are based on the metaphor of the mind as a computerIn this sense, the brain is conceived as the physical support, or hardware, of cognitive functions (memory, language, etc.), which would be equivalent to programs or software. Such an approach serves as a skeleton for these theoretical proposals.

Computers are information processors that respond to the influence of "internal states", the software, which can therefore be used as a tool to operationalize the contents and mental processes of people. In this way we seek to extract hypotheses about human cognition from its unobservable manifestations.

Information processing begins with the reception of stimuli (inputs in computational language) through the senses. We then We then actively encode the information in order to give it meaning and to be able to combine it with the information we store. and combine it with what we store in long-term memory. Finally a response (output) is executed.

Evolution of this metaphor

Different authors have drawn attention to the similarities between people and machines throughout history. The ideas of Thomas Hobbes, for example, manifest a vision of people as "machine animals" that was also taken up by the father of behaviorism, John Watson, and other representatives of this orientation, such as Clark L. Hull.

Alan Turing, mathematician and computer scientistpublished in 1950 the article "Computational Machinery and Intelligence", in which he described what would later be known as artificial intelligence. His work had a great influence in the field of scientific psychology, favoring the appearance of models based on the computer metaphor.

The psychological proposals of the computational type never became hegemonic in themselves; nevertheless, they gave way to the "cognitive revolution", they did, however, give way to the "cognitive revolution".It was rather a natural progression from American mediational behaviorism, with which mental processes had already been added to the basic approaches of the behaviorist tradition.

Main models and authors

In the following we will summarize four of the most influential models that have emerged within the framework of information processing theory.

Together these proposals explain many of the phases of information processing, in which memory plays a particularly prominent role.

1. Atkinson and Shiffrin's multistorey model

In 1968, Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin proposed a model that divided memory into three components ("programs", from the computer metaphor): the sensory register, which allows the input of information, a short-term store that would come to be known as "short-term memory" and a long-term store, the long-term memory.

2. Craik and Lockhart's levels of processing

Shortly thereafter, in 1972, Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart added to the multistorey model the idea that information can be processed in increasing degrees of depth depending on whether we only perceive it or also pay attention to it, categorize it and/or give it meaning. Deep processing, as opposed to superficial processing, favors learning..

3. The connectionist model of Rumelhart and McClelland

In 1986 these authors published "Parallel Distributed Processing: Investigations into the Microstructure of Cognition", which remains a fundamental reference book in this approach. In this work they presented their model of neural networks of information storage, supported by scientific research.supported by scientific research.

4. Baddeley's multicomponent model

Alan Baddeley's (1974, 2000) proposal currently dominates the cognitivist perspective on working memory. Baddeley describes a central executive system that monitors inputs obtained through receptive language (phonological loop), imagery and literacy (visuospatial agenda). The episodic buffer would be equivalent to short-term memory.