InformationProcessing

Theory
Aleigha Simerly
Project #1

Information processing
theory is
O An area of study that seeks people to

understand how people acquire,

store, and recall information and how
their current knowledge guides and
determines what and how they learn.
(McCown & Snowman 2015)

Why did information

processing become popular?
O The nature of the learner

became important
O It was ignored in

Behaviorism.
O Behaviorism is operant
conditioning. This means
that organisms learn to
operate on their
environment; they
obtain or avoid a
particular consequence.
(McCown & Snowman
2015)

The View of Learning

O 1. Information is processed in steps (or

stages).
O Major steps are stored in memory by comparing it to

other information, mental representation, or assigning

meaning to it.
O Grasp information at different stages throughout their
development
O 2. Limited on information that is processed at

each stage.
O Acquire information gradually

O 3. Interactive system.
O Seeing what prior experiences have taught us to see

and see what affects what we know.

Model of Information
Processing

Breakdown of model
O 1. Recording the

experiences you have

had in the environment
and placing them in
the sensory register;
while placed here we
are trying to decided if
we want to hold onto
the information longer
or if we can allow
ourselves to let it go.

O 2. Recognition-

associating the
stimuli with info
that is already
stored; making
use of all sources
of information

Breakdown of
model(continued)
O 3. Attention: focusing

on a portion of
currently available
information
O 4. Moving the info to
the short term
memory; its held for
nearly 20 seconds!
O Place where we

encode, organize, and

retrieve information

O 5. Rehearsal: purpose is

to store info for later

use.
O Maintenance rehearsal:

hold info for immediate

use- no effect on longterm memory storage
O Elaborative rehearsal:
use stored information
to aid in learningbased
on organization(grouped
together and rehearsed
as a set) and
meaningfulness (related
to similar experiences)

Breakdown of model
(continued)
O 6. Long-term memory: permanent

storehouse of unlimited capacity

O Organized into schemata; this

interrelates the different information

O If schemata is well-formed,

comprehension occurs.
O If it is poorly structured, learning is
slow and uncertain.

Why do we forget?
O Inability to retrieve

information that we
have learned
previously
O Common experiences
include not recalling
what we learned in
the first place
O Attention/motivation
problem, not
forgetting

O Inadequate

Consolidation
O Material was not what

we learned in the first

place
O Cram studying is a
common example
O Distributed practice
allows students to
study and restudy
smaller amounts of
info at regular amounts
of time

O Nonmeaningful

Learning: info is
different from what
we have learned to
connect it with other
schemes
O Few Opportunities for
Retrieval: not taking
enough tests as
youre learning
material
O Help give you

feedback about how

youre learning and
recalling what you
have learned

O Interference from

Other Material:
learning so much at
one time makes it
hard to come up with
the right response
O Lack of Retrieval
Cues: encoding
specificity principle,
which means the
retrieval is more
successful when the
material was first
present at original
encoding

Development in Childrens
Memory Skills
O Early middle school grades:
O Children capable of coming up with their own

techniques
O Organizing items, linking information to previous

experiences, naming items, etc.

O Ability to keep track of their own memory

techniques
O Middle School Children:
O Know more meanings of concepts and how to
relate themelaboration
O Coding information, storing it in their memory, and
retrieving it later

How will I use this in my

classroom?
O Capturing the students attention
O Rules will be posted on the wall in

different colors to get their attention

O Color coding the lessons on the board and
emphasizing the words that should be
associated together in the same color
O I will also try to increase their attention
span throughout every lesson.
O The more opportunity I give them to

increase, the better their attention will

become.

O Encouraging the students to relate to

information we have previously learned.

O Allowing them to put the two ideas together

and tell me how they are related

O Combine previous material to larger

concepts
O They will have less information to learn if we

are continuously tying lessons together from

the past.
O Incorporating visuals with the information

that we are learning

O Making drawings and diagrams will allow

students to come up with their own ways of

perceiving the information that we are
learning.

References:
O McCown, R., & Snowman, J. (2015).

Information-Processing Theory. In
Psychology Applied to Teaching (14th
ed., pp. 263-293). Stamford:
Cengage Learning.