INFORMATION PROCESSING
Information processing is a cognitive theoretical framework that
focuses on how knowledge enters and is stored in and is retrieved
from our memory.
They consider learning as largely an internal process, not an external
behavior change (as behaviorist theorists thought). They look into
how we receive, perceive, store and retrieve information. They
believe that how a person thinks about and interprets what s/he
receives shape what he/she will learn
IPT describes how the learner receives information (stimuli) from the
environment through the senses and what takes place in between
determines whether the information will' continue to pass through
the sensory register, then the short term memory and the long term
memory.
TYPES" OF KNOWLEDGE
a. General vs. Specific: This involves whether the knowledge is
useful in many tasks, or only in one.
b. Declarative-This refers to factual knowledge. They relate to
the nature of how things are. They maybe in the form of a
word or an image. Examples are your name, address, a
nursery rhyme, the definition of IPT, or even the face of
your crush.
c. Procedural-This includes knowledge on how to do things.
Examples include making a lesson plan,baking a cake, or
getting the least common denominator.
d. Episodic - This includes memories of life events, like your
high school graduation.
e. Conditional- This is about "knowing when and why to apply
declarative or procedural strategies.
STAGES IN THE INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY
The stages of IPT involve the functioning of the senses, sensory
register, short-term memory and the long-term memory. Basically,
IPT asserts three primary stages in the progression of external
information becoming incorporated into the internal cognitive
structure of choice (schema, concept, script, frame, mental model,
etc.).
These three primary stages in IPT are…
1. Encoding - Information is sensed, perceived and attended to.
2. Storage -The information is stored for either a brief or extended
period of time, depending uponthe processes following encoding.
3. Retrieval -The information is brought back at the appropriate
time and reactivated for use on a current task, the true measure of
effective memory.
the stages to processing follow a trail along which information is
taken into the memory system,and brought back (recalled) when
needed. Most theories of information processing revolve around
the three main stages in the memory process:
Sensory Register
The first step in the IP model holds all sensory information for a very
brief time.
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Capacity: Our mind receives a great amount of information
but it is more than what our minds can hold or perceive.
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Duration: The sensory register only holds the information
for an extremely brief period-in the order of 1 to 3 seconds.
There is a difference in duration based on modality:
auditory memory is more persistent than visual.
The Role of Attention
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To bring information into consciousness, it is necessary that
we give attention to it. Such that, we can only perceive and
remember later those things that pass through our
attention "gate".
Getting through this attentional filter is done when the
learner is interested in the material; when there
distinctiveness. is conscious control over attention, or when
information involves novelty, surprise, salience, and
Before information is perceived, it is known as
"precategorical" information. This means that until that
point, the learner has not established a determination of
the categorical membership of the information. To this
point, the information is coming in as uninterpreted
patterns of stimuli. Once it is perceived, we can categorize,
judge, interpret and place meaning to the stimuli. If we fail
to perceive, we have no means by which to recognize that
the stimulus was ever encountered.
Short-Term Memory (STM or Working Memory)
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Capacity: The STM can only hold 5 to 9 "chunks" of
information, sometimes described as 7 +/-2. It is called
working memory because it is where new information is
temporarily placed while it is mentally processed. STM
maintains information for a limited time, until the learner
has adequate resources to process the information or until
the information is forgotten.
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Duration: Around 18 seconds or less.
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To reduce the loss of information in 18 seconds, you need
to do maintenance rehearsal. It is using repetition to keep
the information active in STM, like when you repeat a
phone number just given over and over.
Long-Term Memory (LTM)
The LTM is the final or permanent storing house for memory
information. It holds the stored information until needed again.
Capacity: LTM has unlimited capacity.
Duration: Duration in the LTM is indefinite
Executive Control Processes
The executive control processes involve the executive
processor or what is referred to as metacognitive skills. These
processes guide the flow of information through the system, help
the learner make informed decisions about now to categorize,
organize or interpret information. Examples of processes are
attention, rehearsals and organization.
Forgetting
Forgetting is the inability to retrieve or access information
when needed.
There are two main ways in which forgetting likely occurs:
 Decay -Information is not attended to, and eventually ‘fades”
away.
 Interference - New or old information 'blocks' access to the
information in question.
association techniques, among others. retrieve information more
effectively. This includes the loci technique, acronyms, sentence
Methods for Increasing Retrieval of Information
This theory stipulates that there are several different types or levels
of learning. The significance of these classifications is that each
different type requires different types of instruction.
 Rehearsal - This is repeating information verbatim, either mentally
or aloud.
 Meaningful Learning - This is making connections between new
information and prior knowledge.
 Organization -It is making connections among various pieces of
information. Info that is organized efficiently should be recalled.
 Elaboration - This is adding additional ideas to new information
based on what one already knows. It is connecting new info with old
to gain meaning.
 Visual Imagery - This means forming a "picture" of the information
 Generation - Things we produce' are easier to remember than
things we 'hear.
 Context - Remembering the situation helps recover information.
 Personalization - It is making the information relevant to the
individual.
Other Memory Methods
 Serial Position Effect (recency and primacy) -You will remember the
beginning and end of a 'list more readily
 Part Learning - Break up the "list' or "chunk" information to
increase memorization.
 Distributed Practice -Break up learning sessions, rather than
cramming all the info in at once (Massed Practice)
 Mnemonic Aids - These are memory techniques that learners may
employ to help them retain and construction, peg-word and
ROBERT GAGNE (EVENT OF LEARNIG THEORY)
Gagne identifies five major categories of learning:
Intellectual Skills
Intellectual skills, also known as procedural skills, is the easiest way
to identify a student’s readiness. These skills encompass concepts,
procedures and rules. This is also referred to as ‘knowing how
something must be done’.
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Use different contexts/perspectives
Plan opportunities to practice and assess
Use verbal indications for combining skills, knowledge or
components
Encourage the retrieval of previously gained knowledge
Stay within the limits of the working memory; not too much
at once
Ask attention for deviating characteristics
Verbal Skills
The verbal skills are also called explanatory knowledge, and these
determine whether the student is able to explain what he or she has
learned. Explanatory knowledge consists of different types of
knowledge that can be recalled in different ways. Here, as Gagné
describes, previously learned knowledge helps in learning new
information.
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Provide a meaningful context for effectively coding
information
Encourage the retrieval of previously gained knowledge
Encourage the generalization of information
Present information in a manageable way
Ask attention for deviating characteristics
Cognitive Strategies
Gagné’s Conditions of Learning defines the cognitive strategies as
the way to enable students to exercise control over the processes
involved in: participating, observing, coding, remembering,
retrieving, and thinking in general. In other words, it means that the
student develops his or her own personal way to learn, think and act.
The instructions that are given form the essence of the cognitive
perspective.
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Describe or demonstrate strategies
Plan opportunities to practice the strategy and to assess the
action after
Give information and constructive feedback on the creativity
or originality of a developed strategy or outcome
Motor Skills
Motor skills entail that it is analyzed whether the student uses the
right order when carrying out procedures, for instance. This concerns
combining sub-skills. When improvement occurs in the smoothness
of an action, the timing and the motion through practice, we call this
motor learning.
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Plan opportunities to practice and assess
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Share verbal or other guidelines to determine the routine
Share feedback on the accuracy of achievements
immediately
Attitude
Attitudes are internal conditions that can’t always be perceived
directly. Gagné’s Conditions of Learning describes attitudes as
emotional components and cognitive components, because they
influence behavior. Attitudes also refer to the bias that influences
the learner’s action compared to something or someone else.
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Develop success expectations based on the desired attitude
Make sure that students have a role model
Give feedback for successful achievements
Different internal and external conditions are necessary to reach
type of learning. For example, for cognitive strategies to be learned,
there must be a chance to practice developing new solutions to
problems; to learn attitudes, the learner must be exposed to a
credible role model or persuasive arguments.
Gagne suggests that learning tasks for intellectual skills can be
organized in a hierarchy according to complexity: stimulus
recognition, response generation, procedure following, use of
terminology, discriminations, concept formation, rule application,
and problem solving.
In addition, the theory outlines nine instructional events and
corresponding cognitive processes:
(1) gaining attention (reception)
(2) informing learners of the objective (expectancy)
(3) stimulating recall of prior learning (retrieval)
(4) presenting the stimulus (selective perception)
(5) providing learning guidance (semantic encoding)
Transfer of Learning
(6) eliciting performance (responding)
There are three types of transfer of learning:
(7) providing feedback (reinforcement)
1. Positive transfer:
(8) assessing performance (retrieval)
When learning in one situation facilitates learning in another
situation, it is known as a positive transfer. For example, skills in
playing the violin facilitate learning to play the piano. Knowledge of
mathematics facilitates to learn physics in a better way. Driving a
scooter facilitates driving a motorbike.
(9) enhancing retention and transfer (generalization)
2. Negative transfer:
When learning of one task makes the learning of another task
harder- it is known as a negative transfer. For example, speaking
Telugu hindering the learning of Malayalam.
Left-hand drive vehicles hindering the learning of right-hand drive.
3. Neutral transfer:
When learning of one activity neither facilitates nor hinders the
learning of another task, it is a case of neutral transfer. It is also
called as zero transfer
Synthesis involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as
to form a whole.”
Evaluation engenders “judgments about the value of material and
methods for given purposes.”
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a system of hierarchical models (arranged in a
rank, with some elements at the bottom and some at the top) used to
categorize learning objectives into varying levels of complexity
(Bloom, 1956).
Here are the authors’ brief explanations of these main categories in
from the appendix of Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Handbook
One, pp. 201-207):
Knowledge “involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of
methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or
setting.”
Comprehension “refers to a type of understanding or apprehension
such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can
make use of the material or idea being communicated without
necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest
implications.”
Application refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and
concrete situations.”
Analysis represents the “breakdown of a communication into its
constituent elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas
is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made
explicit.”
The Revised Taxonomy (2001) by David Krathwohl, Et. Al.
The revised taxonomy underscore by using verbs and gerunds to label
their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the
original taxonomy). These “action words” describe the cognitive
processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge:
Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyze
Evaluate
Create
Recognizing Recalling
Interpreting Exemplifying Classifying Summarizing
Inferring Comparing Explaining
Executing Implementing
Differentiating Organizing Attributing
Checking Critiquing
Generating Planning Producing
In the revised taxonomy, knowledge is at the basis of these six
cognitive processes, but its authors created a separate taxonomy of
the types of knowledge used in cognition:
Factual Knowledge
Knowledge of terminology
Knowledge of specific details and elements
Conceptual Knowledge
Knowledge of classifications and categories
Knowledge of principles and generalizations
Knowledge of theories, models, and structures
Procedural Knowledge
Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms
Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods
Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate
procedures
Metacognitive Knowledge
Strategic Knowledge
Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual
and conditional knowledge
Self-knowledge