INFORMATION PROCESSING

4. Information Processing

Unlike other learning theories discussed here, information processing is not a learning theory of its own. Instead, it refers to “how people attend to environmental events, encode information to be learned and relate it to knowledge in memory, store new knowledge in memory and retrieve it as needed (Schunk 119).

Information processing is concerned a great deal with memory storage and retrieval. Gestalt psychologists provide an insight into the need for organizing information, while verbal learning research proves that organization improves recall. The important concept here is that information is learned better, or memorized with greater likelihood of recall, if it is organized in an orderly manner. If information is not organized, individuals “impose their own organization” (Schunk 167) in an attempt to make the information easier to memorize.

Effective use of information processing includes is facilitated with an awareness of how memory works at different levels. There are two types of memory for holding information: short-term and long-term memory. In the 1950's, George Miller proposed the concept that short-term memory could only hold a limited amount of information. Information is broken into pieces called chunks and short-term memory can only store approximately seven chunks of information for immediate retrieval; seven names, seven items in a list, etc.

Miller also proposed that the human mind worked very much like a computer. Information is stored, processed and retrieved. Information processing learning theorists are therefore basically concerned with how human memory works.

Other types of memory have been defined as well as short and long-term memory. Episodic memory is information that is associated with events, times and places. Semantic memory involves general knowledge and concepts. Verbal memory is concerned with language meanings and structure. Visual memory is the storage and retrieval of information coded as images.

An understanding of information processing schemas, as presented by educators such as Gagne and Dick and later Anderson, can aid teachers in providing stronger learning opportunities for students. There is a danger to rely on rote memory, to move information from short-term memory to long-term memory without truly understanding the information. Utilizing the concept of schema, however, allows teachers to help students learn smaller pieces of information that build on each other. Students are encouraged to construct new knowledge based on earlier memorized information, which is a similar characteristic of constructivist theory.

Information processing has become very helpful in understanding the limits of human memory and information recall. For effective memory recall to occur a number of conditions need to be met and information processing theorists have been very helpful in outlining these requirements. Teachers need to be aware of what is needed for effective memory recall, and the differences between the various types of memory.