Memory and cognition: An information processing model of man

Abstract

A model is presented based largely on theorization by Hunt, Neisser, and Bernstein as to how human beings may process information. The information processing approach is compared with certain S-R behavioristic ones, and research and theorizing in the areas of pattern recognition, memory, problem solving, language, motor organization, and to a lesser extent motivation, are reviewed in the context of the model. It is concluded that what we see as certain methodological advances over behaviorism (the use of a more flexible language derived in part from computer technology and linguistics, and a greater willingness to use subject protocols and experimenter intuitions as well as behavioral data) have led to four major classes of theoretical advance in the past 20 years. First, there is the multi-trace notion of memory. Second, the apparent compatibility of active information processes with determinism has resulted in their legitimization in theory. Third, there is the notion that information processing mechanisms themselves require memory space as stored data. Fourth, ideas concerning the nature of the data base in long-term memory and its relation to semantics are currently undergoing revision and show promise. Though several individual anticipations of these views are noted in late 19th- and early 20th century psychology, they seem now to have assumed the status of a major paradigm. Finally, it is pointed out as a caveat that the information processing approach and hence our model have tended to limit themselves to verbal processes of educated Western adults studied individually in the laboratory.