Theoretical foundation
Skinner
Information-processing
Gagne

Characteristics

Criticisms

Theoretical foundation-
information-processing

The Information-processing Theorists: The Mind as Computer

Information-processing theorists are among the first and the most influential of the cognitive-learning theorists. They didn't agree with behaviorist' views that stimulus-response alone could form the basis for building higher-level skills. As the focused on capabilities such as rule learning and problem solving, they became more concerned with the internal processes that went on during learning.

The work of the information-processing theorists is based on a model of memory and storage originally proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin. According to them, the brain contains certain structures that process information much like a computer. This model of the mind as computer hypothesizes that human brain has three kinds of memory or "stores":

1. Sensory registers. The part of memory that receives all the information a person senses.

2. Short-term memory (STM). Also know as working memory, the part of memory where new information held temporarily until it is either lost or placed into long-term memory.

3. Long-term memory (LTM). The part of memory that has an unlimited capacity and can hold information indefinitely.

According to this model, learning occurs in the following way. Information is sensed through receptors: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hands. This information is held in the sensory registers for a very short time (perhaps a second), after which it either enters short-term (STM) or is lost. Anything people pay attention to goes into working memory, where it can stay for about 5 to 20 seconds. After this time, if information is not processed or practiced in a way that causes it to transfer to long-term memory (LTM), then is, too, is lost. Information-processing theorists believe that for new information to be transferred to LTM, it must be linked in some way to prior knowledge already in LTM. Once information does enter LTM, it stays there indefinitely.