Cognitive Psychology and Information Processing - Assignment Example

Introduction Cognitive psychology is considered as one of the most important and dominant approaches in Psychology due to its ability to provide answers to few of the most critical questions of psychology. It is primarily concerned with the storage and retrieval of information however, it also attempts to comprehensively cover the role of memory in information processing. Information processing theory is one of the most important aspects of cognitive development and has largely been developed under the influence of American experimentation. This also entails that human mind processes information via very systematic and organized rules of logic and other general as well as specific strategies. Most of the theoretical underpinnings of this concept also draw a parallel between human mind and computer and assume that like computer, mind has a limited capacity to process the information. There are four basic postulates or beliefs of information processing theory which are also considered as the basic theoretical foundations. These basic building blocks are considered as the overall foundations of how the theoretical explanations to different information processing capabilities of individuals shall explain the different alternatives. It is also critical to note that these basic postulates or facts are largely based on the stage theory. However, there are few alternative theories of information processing also which undertake a slightly different approach to information processing. COATSRUAM is one such alternative which provides a deeper analysis of the cognitive approaches used in information processing. This paper will describe each component of the COATSRUAM model and will than choose three important components to provide literature review of the subject to discuss whether the available literature review confirms or disconfirms the importance of them in information processing. COATSRUAM MODEL The components of COATSRUAM model are described below: Context This component of the model outlines that most of the learning and problem solving occurs within the CONTEXT. The learning capability of the students is largely influenced by their social interaction of the students thus within this context, learning is often considered as situational. The learning process of the students therefore is largely influenced by the socio-cultural aspects of the environment within which a student spent most of his time. This is also important because of the fact that the way we construct our knowledge is often dependent upon how we interact with our social and cultural environment. Orientation Students often attempt to learn within specific orientations and as such often respond to new learning outcomes in more familiar manner due to the fact the students may have already developed a pre-defined set of views about any particular problem or learning outcome based on previous experience. Previous similar tasks play critical role in defining the overall influence of orientation on their learning capability and information processing abilities. Orientation is also taken into consideration due to general motivations of the students and their common beliefs about their own competencies and skills. It is because of this reason that students may not respond in most efficient manner if task is particularly against their beliefs and general motivations. Analysis Children often attempt to form some early representations of the different perceptual activities for which analysis is considered as an important aspect. Analysis is considered as an important component as it allows students to properly analyze the problem. It is therefore often stressed that the students shall be particularly guided at this stage owing to the tendency of the students to skip certain important information while understanding and analyzing a problem. It is also important to note that if students hurry themselves out of this stage and compromise some information loss and its analysis, all subsequent stages of processing often get compromise because students often form wrong or incorrect representations of the problem and related information. Transformation Transformation process largely depends upon the earlier formed phases of the processing. At this stage, children often attempt to create linkages between different representations. This is also critical to note that such type of information is also critical as it helps to form richer and more stable forms of networks. The process of transformation is also considered as important because it greatly helps to achieve successful retrieval at later stages. Students often find this more significant if such links are used in dealing with the existing phase of knowledge. It is also critical to note that transformation facility can be greatly improved through proper rehearsal, cognitive and deliberate selection of the information as well as forming analogies for different explanations. Students also develop variable capabilities to process different cognitive processes at different levels. Storage This stage or phase is often associated with the long term memory and student’s ability to comprehend information and process it. Storage is also considered as the creation of systematic links and networks as long term memory is often linked with this sort of structure within the brain of an individual. It is also often argued that the formation of storage as well as consolidation processes within an infant starts from the age of 9 months therefore as the individual children grow, they develop a better ability to form associations and networks besides developing their retrieval capability. Retrieval Like storage, retrieval is also seen as one of the most critical aspects of cognitive processing. It is critical that the children must have the capability to access the knowledge stored through creation of different associations and networks. Students often find it easier to retrieve certain information more easily as compared to other types of information. Students however, also do not have the ability to retrieve and as such their ability to process information and problem solving. Utilisation Use of knowledge and how a teacher transfers it to others is another important aspect of information processing. Dissemination of knowledge by the teacher and hence its effective utilization is thus critical due to automatic and deliberate use of the knowledge by every individual. It is often argued that when students are often exposed to the same level and degree of knowledge they are often show some voluntary and automatic responses to such knowledge. Thus the effective utilization of the knowledge is one of the most important characteristics as to how teachers and students often interact in typical class room settings for learning. Attention Attention and its management are critical for students because it allow students to allocate different attentative resources to different tasks and activities. Attention resources however can of different nature as they can be sensory as well as visual in nature however; many also believe that there is a central attention source which generates the capacity for attention. Attention also creates bottlenecks for processing of information because students have to ration their attentive resources to most important tasks first therefore if more important tasks emerge together, attention can be a limiting factor. Management Ideas and concepts discussed above that the cognitive processing requires an effective management of the process itself. Management therefore also considered as the self regulatory process as it involves the management of different activities and tasks undertaken by the students. In this phase, students not only plan his tasks but also attempt to monitor them and reflect upon them. If the management is not effective, it is more likely that the capability of the students of problem solving will be ineffective. Following section will discuss Context, analysis, as well as transformation as three most important components of the model to discuss the relevance of these components to information processing capabilities of the students. Context Context can be either situational or linguistic and both have the capability to influence the information processing capability of the individuals because both the contexts have the capability to change or influence the meanings of the sentences.(Lachman & Butterfield,1979). Most of the research studies have often focused more on experimenting on the linguistic aspects of the situational context and as such plays a critical role. Most of the information processing models often assume that the information is stored in patterns like a mental dictionary and as such specifying a meaning to any sentence or word depends largely upon the context within which the learner is living. Context is also important for any information processing model because its inappropriate application or non-application will result into inappropriate as well as slow encoding of information and as such the meaning extracting ability of the learners is greatly reduced. For learning purposes, it is really critical that the students must have the ability to derive meanings from words and sentences and that depends mostly on the context of the learner. The above discussion clearly indicates that for any information processing model, it is critical that the context is taken into consideration for properly evaluating as to how the learners adapt to different learning environments and how they are influenced by the socio-cultural aspects of the learning. Similarly, the concepts of nature versus nurture forms the basic building block of how the learning and development of individuals take place.(Coll, et.al,2004). Though nature versus nurture often considers the innate capabilities of the individuals however, it plays a critical part in terms of how the learning of the individuals takes place and how it is affected by the society as well as the individual’s own capabilities. Context thus within this framework is an important component which needs to be integrated into any information processing model in order to properly analyze as to how the information is processed. Analysis The levels of processing theory of cognitive development indicate that the learners often tend to use different processes in a phased manner while dealing with any problem solving. Analysis is critical from the point of view of the cognitive processing of any information no matter which information processing model is used. For example, in stage theory, memory encoding is one critical aspect which also requires elaborative encoding of information. In order to utilize elaborative encoding more effectively, it is critical that the students must have the capability to analyze the information in its proper context. (Nault,2008). Similarly, in levels of processing theory, analysis is considered critical due to the fact that it requires perception building at the initial stages before going on to next stages. The work undertaken by Bransford (1979) clearly indicates that the methods of accessing the information must correspond with the methods of elaboration and analysis in order to get a perfect information processing. Parallel distributed information processing is also another critical model which though advocates that the information processing takes place simaltenousely however, information analysis remains a more critical aspect of the information processing. Transformation Mental transformation outlines that the individuals often form different networks or connections when processing a set of information. This component is critical for an information processing model because it allows individuals to formulate pre-cognitive responses to certain objects as well as words based on the previous knowledge of such objects. A model therefore must necessarily account for the ability of the individuals to characterize different operators within the human brain for mental transformation of the tasks.(Sternberg,1982). Various studies also indicated that the mental transformation process is also largely dependent on the spatial ability of the learners thus this component of the model is also critical from the point of view of how the innate capabilities of the individuals are related with the mental transformation capabilities of the individuals. Information processing model therefore must incorporate this in order to facilitate the learners to learn through visualization as well as different other sources of orientation. Motivation, Cognitive and metacognitive thoughts and actions Context plays an important role in deciding the overall motivations of the individuals to learning. Motivations are often generated within a particular context and largely depends upon the kind of environment learner is basically evolving as an individual. It has been observed in developing and poor countries that the students often find it less interesting and less motivating to study and learn because priorities are often different in such environment. Similarly, analysis an important aspects of how the cognition process really takes place and what processes are involved in practically defining the overall process of thought. The association of various cognitive processes and actions such as attention, perception, etc accounts for the various learning processes within an individual. For example, context really affects as to how the overall cognitive process of individuals is affected given the fact that an individual is often considered as the part of larger environment within which his overall thoughts and actions are formulated. Analysis itself is an important cognitive process as it allows individuals to filter the information in a manner that most important information is prioritized first and than all subsequent information is stored and processed. Transformation is also critical as it attempts to encapsulate the motivational as well as cognitive thoughts and processes. How different connections and linkages are created by individuals is largely dependent upon the different degrees of motivations held by the individuals. If individuals are not motivated enough than most important and critical information may also not processed and transformed in most appropriate manner and may lost its significance altogether. Metacognition is critical concept too as it attempts to encompass two processes happening simultaneously in a manner. Thus the ability to learn and how to distinguish and discriminate in learning is metacognition. The process of analysis allows learners to not only monitor their progress during learning but also provides an opportunity to make change accordingly to make learning process more fruitful for the individual. It is the metacognition which basically differentiate a novice learner from the expert learner and analysis and context are two important concepts which account for this process. References 1. Bransford, J. (1979). Human cognition: Learning, understanding, and remembering. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. 2. Coll,, C Bearer, E & Lerner, R (2004) Nature and Nurture . New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 3. Lachman, J & Butterfield, E (1979) Cognitive Psychology and Information Processing: An Introduction. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 4. Nault, B (2008) An Information Processing Model of Information Systems Impact on Interorganizational Coordination SSRN, Available: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=915810 Last accessed 1st October, 2009 5. Sternberg, R (1982). Handbook of human intelligence. New York: CUP Archive,. Read More