Information Processing Theory and Approach

Are you aware of the intricate brain-based process that is the basis of how students (or just about anybody) acquires new concepts and information? That's the question that the theory of information processing aims to explain. It explores the complicated process of registering, observing and processing information within our brains and retrieving it whenever needed.

Find out more about the theories as well as ways to implement it into online classes that will benefit your students. Let's start with a brief look at where it all began.

Skip ahead:

•    An overview of Information Processing Theory
•    Concepts at the heart of Information Processing Theory
•    What happens to it? take place in the brain?
•    Make your students focus on the online content for your course
•    Information processing basics to help your students remember better.
•    The Limits of Information Processing Theory in online learning
•    Strategies to make information processing theory work better for online learning
•    Humanize the theory of information processing to create relatable online courses

Brief history of Information Processing Theory

Back in the 1950s, scientists realized that computers were the key to understanding how our minds work. George Armitage Miller and Edward C. Tolman established the fundamentals of how we work with short term memory and learn things. Based on this fundamental design, two popular theories of the theory of information processing arose - the Atkinson and Shiffrin Model and the Baddeley and Hitch Model of Working Memory.

The Atkinson and Shiffrin Model discusses the three phases of processing information, which include sensorimotor memory, short term memory (working memory) and long term memory. It focuses on the importance of attention and intricate rehearsal patterns that contribute to information being stored in the long term memory. It is based on the Baddeley and Hitch Model of Working Memory builds on these concepts and explains the process of processing language as well as spatial patterns.

Are you overwhelmed by the jargon of psychology? Don't worry! We have combined aspects of all these theories in order to aid you in understanding how we humans process information. Begin by exploring how humans use information to solve everyday problems, and examining each of these processes in detail.

The fundamental concepts in Information Processing Theory

As an educator of creators, it's extremely helpful to understand aspects of information processing.

Let's do that with the following example

Imagine walking down an area that is crowded and get exposed to an array of sights, sounds, and smells. People may also rub against your shoulders if you are not careful enough and happen to be in the middle of unruly crowds. To avoid this chaos and noise it is suggested to stroll into a cafe that you are sure is peaceful and quiet. It is also a good idea to keep in mind that they have the best coffee and croissants in the area of town.

This is information processing theory in action, actually in the real world. We'll see:

1. It is possible to feel various stimulations (people moving around, someone touching your shoulder, a car speeding across the street and so on. - sensation. A stimulus can be an external input or information)
2. The place you see is perceived to be overcrowded (perception is the way we interpret the information we sensed).
3. Based on your previous experiences (long time episodic memory) You associate this situation to be unpleasant and possibly dangerous (being being pushed around, past association)
4. So, you remember an area that previously offered you comfort (another chain of memory results in retrieving details about the cafe's quiet atmosphere and croissants, which is a form of semantic memory).
5. The memory is activated then walk towards the cafe (judging/analyzing and making a decision. Moving towards the cafe can be a the procedural memory).

    First, you sense your environment    

Humans are able to receive information also known as "stimulus" through five senses: smell, touch, vision, auditory (hearing) as well as tasting. The sixth sense is related to body's posture as well as movement and balance the vestibular sense exists.

senses and the related sense organs

• Vision - Eyes
• Audio - Ears
• Touch Skin
• Taste - Tongue
• Aroma - Nose
• Vestibular sense - Ears and various parts of the nervous system.

When your sense organs convert the real world information into electrical signals and your brain process them and interprets them into information that you recognise at a conscious level. Interpretation of what is perceived occurs due to previous associations (similar information that is stored in your brain that can be recalled and draw a connection).

For creators, unless you incorporate augmented or virtual reality within the content of your lessons, you will primarily use inputs (stimuli) that are related to visual (reading text and watching videos) and audio (voice or background music).

    Sensing leads to perception.

Each of the sense organs responds to various stimuli in the external environment and transforms the signals they receive into electrical signals that are perceived in various parts in the brain. Sensing processes take place in the sense organs, and perception takes place inside the brain. For those with different perception and disordered learning might find it difficult to absorb information efficiently.

Note for writers: If you're planning to make your lesson content disabled-friendly, you may want to consider accessible design practices. Examples of accessible design are making sure that words are spaced evenly, breaking long paragraphs into shorter paragraphs, and ensuring enough white space.

    The information that is perceived has been processed (encoded), it enters memory.    

Memory is an umbrella term for many different components of cognitive functioning. It begins with retaining information for a short while (sensory as well as working memory) and transferring it into long-term storage through consolidation (encoding).

Sensory memory can last from two and three seconds. If you ignore the sensation and do not feel it, you will never become short-term memory. Research has found that short-term memory can hold about seven pieces of information over a period between 15 and 30 minutes. Through practice, your brain can retain this information, after which it deteriorates or disappears.

When you practice, your brain goes through a process referred to as encoding, which leads the information to be transferred to long-term memory. Once transferred to long-term storage and you are able to access the information at any time so long as you don't let it go through a process of decay or interference. Long-term memory ranges from remembering an event that you witnessed just a moment ago, to what happened many years in the past -- going all the way back to childhood.

The practice of rehearsing can be viewed to facilitate rote learning in educational circumstances. However, we are aware that the majority of students are not able to grasp the concept of rote-learning, and it is not a good strategy to master complex concepts and abstract information.

The various types of memory that are long-term include:

1. Explicit memory - that which is available in conscious. If you are asked by someone what the capital of Great Britain is, you are able to say it's London. Therefore explicit memories are known as declarative memory. Declarative memory is further broken down into

• The episodic memory memories of specific events which occurred in your life. Examples include visiting a friend's house during childhood
• Semantic memory is the ability to recall things you've learned about the world, such as when the declaration of World War 2 (September 1 1939).

1. Implicit memory: It's stored in your long-term memory but relates to movement and performance. Examples of this include the ability to swim, and recalling how to drive your car after a lengthy gap or any other.

    Attention can help memory last for longer, as well as help you to learn faster    

Although our sense organs receive a lot of information, they don't get registered in our minds unless you are paying attention to them. They are stored in "sensory memory," upon perception. These memories last only a few seconds (between one and three seconds).

Concentrating your attention to a certain stimulus in the presence of other stimulus. For instance, you go to the cafe you prefer and choose the croissant you want in spite of the fact that there are numerous other items available.

Recalling the instance of the busy street, your mind may have perceived the presence of various individuals. Yet, you may not have paid enough attention to remember their faces. This is why the data associated with the faces of each individual has deteriorated and eventually, it's lost forever.

How does this all take place inside the brain?

As an educator who creates, you may wonder how all information you provide to your students is being processed by their brains. Baddeley as well as the Hitch Model of Working Memory provides a clear solution to this.

They've explained that the frontal lobe (a part of the brain) functions as a processor that encodes information and then retrieved. There are various types of memories stored in different areas within the brain. According to Hitch:

• Audio information (information in the form of the sound that is usually recognized as music, language or other kinds of sound) is stored within the phonological loop.
• Phonological loop consists of the phonological storage, in which data is kept for a brief period of time, as well as the articulatory rehearsal in which the brain practice auditory signals to be saved for a long period of duration.
• The Visuospatial Sketch Pad is a part of the brain that stores spatial and visual information, like shapes, patterns pictures, and so on.
• Episodic buffer is believed to increase the capacity of the brain to encode, store and retrieve information through the connection of various parts of the brain which aid in processing information.

Now let's apply what we've learned about information processing to learning online environments.

Students should be aware of your course's online content

In the context of lesson planning or creating modules, think of it this way. If you fail to present your slides or video appealing enough, pupils will not be interested and go onto the next. The students take a look at the slide video (sensation takes place) but don't take in it long enough to store it in the short-term memory of their brains. Leave alone practicing it to be stored in long-term memory - it just disappears from memories of sensory. Therefore, keeping their attention is of primary importance.

It is important to consider the possibility that your student could be distracted, daydreaming, or bored with the content you provide. All these factors interfere with the ability of students to pay focus on what must be learned and stored into long-term memory. Therefore, making sure you produce content that sustains the students' interest is vitally important.

  This is what you can do:  

• Urge them to stop every between 10 and 15 minutes. Research shows that attention spans decrease in the first 15 minutes.
• Therefore, you should plan your classes to be divided into chunks with a minimum of 15 minutes. You do not have to create video lessons or lectures which last only 10 minutes. Instead, you need to give your students little games, activities or chillouts.
• Create more engaging online learning environments for learning. The reason will be explained later on.

Basic information processing strategies to help your students remember better.

Once information is stored in the short-term memory of your brain and is not accessed, it could be transferred to long-term memory or get deleted. Practice and repetition is the key to keeping data for long periods in the long-term memory. This is why it's crucial to create lesson plans in order that your students get plenty of time to practise and re-experience what is retained inside their brains. This needs to take place in a matter of minutes. Thus, at the close of every lesson, which lasts a few minutes, encourage your students to practice, repeat the lesson in a rehearsal or practice. The process of rotation helps to ensure that the information they've processed gets stored in long-term memory.

Once something is stored in the long-term memory of your brain, it can be retrieved in the future, when asked. The success of memory retrieval is dependent on the degree of enthusiasm with which the pupil was able to absorb something (were they attentive enough or was the material you taught interesting enough, etc. ).

It is evident from the above description that learning is a result of how we view information and how we associate it with the things we know already as well as the need to be attentive.

But is it really so simple?

Lesser-than-average limits of Information Processing Theory in online learning

Human beings aren't machines. While drawing parallels between the human brain and computers is appealing but they're different. Information Processing Theory doesn't discuss the role played by motivation and emotions in the way we process information and remember things. Both are essential to learning and recalling the information we've learned.

The theory assumes that brains process information in a linear fashion -- information is sensed, perceived, processed (encoded) and stored and later recovered. This is referred to as serial processing, which is what computers are able to do.

However, the brain is capable of parallel processing this means that it is able to simultaneously process different kinds of data. The multitasking ability of the human brain does do not correspond to what a computer can accomplish. So, while the theory of information processing accurately defines how we perceive, perceive, process, and save information, it ignores emotions as well as the way of how our minds work.

Students have emotions, desires, and motivations which you could or might not be aware of when designing your curriculum. Hence, it is essential to realize that you are teaching human students and not machines. The easiest way to fix this problem is by creating educational environments online that are stimulating.

Now, let's look at how you can add motivation, emotions as well as social interaction into the mix. You can also leverage information processing theory even better for the perfect online class.

Strategies for making information processing theory work better for online learning

    Encourage your students to be attentive    

What is the point of learning something even if they aren't interested in? They must have an innate drive or motivation to register for your course, and be motivated to finish.

Motivation drives them to focus on your course material which results in better information processing (encoding) as well as superior capabilities for retrieving information. If your student doesn't have the motivation to learn, even an outstanding course will not register in their mind.

Motivation plays a vital role in processing information. It is essential to be able by the external environment.

• Your role as an teacher creator is to sustain that motivation.
• Be aware that motivation cannot exist in a vacuum. It is essential to feel valued as well as receive constructive feedback and feel socially accepted in order to feel motivated to keep doing something. Did you recall your buddies who encouraged you to do something when you were feeling low or needed to improve at certain things? The same is true for the process of learning too.

Motivation and interpersonal relationships are interconnected. Let's look at how this is played out in social information processing theory.

    Encourage social interaction during learning    

Despite the fact that one-to-one training is efficient, people benefit from learning when they are within a group. This is why traditional learning usually takes place in groups or classrooms because the learning experience with other people is much more fun (and efficient).

Social information processing theorem partially explains how people communicate with each with each other through computers like an online platform for learning.

Humans learn through modeling or observation, which means, imitating how others behave. This is where you, the creator educator, assume the role of being a role model and the students mimic your behaviour. Albert Bandura, a famous psychologist, observed that most learning happens in social settings, and that we cannot take away "social" aspects of the process of learning.

With this thought in mind It is crucial for you to

• Create online group activities
• Encourage students to interact in websites, and also to share their expertise.
• Make collaboration and engagement with social media a key part of the course's plan.
• Use social tools to exchange ideas, that can be used as a type of rehearsal
• Encourage positive feedback from peers (other students) which acts as a positive reinforcement. For this, have your students evaluate their work in a positive way.

    Use specific cognitive strategies for achieving goals    

Cognitive strategies are usually specific to a particular task. Therefore, you need to make sure that your students are working in the area in a direct way. The cognitive strategies which you could employ in online learning are note-taking, repetition, contextual understanding, as well as Mnemonics. (A memory aid is one which allows you to remember or access information stored in your memory)

Like: VIBGYOR is an acronym that refers to the seven colors of the rainbow: violet, indigo, blue green, yellow red and orange. Other than acronyms, other sorts of mnemonics as well, such as flashcards, categorizing objects in categories, etc. These can assist your pupils remember what they've learned quickly.

    Help with high-level information processing by using metacognitive strategies    

Researchers have suggested that there is something called "metacognition," which means "thinking about the thought process." Practice in rehearsal, try to remember your mistakes, or use techniques that actively help others to learn or recall (such in teaching with a purpose) You are participating in a form of metacognition.

The year 1987 was the year that A.L. Brown initiated discussion around metacognition strategies within the context of learning. Through the years it has morphed quite a bit.

in the context of online courses, here are some of the top metacognitive strategies

• Advance organizers: Encourage your students to consider your lesson plan by sharing course calendars in advance. This helps your students to anticipate what they can expect, and to connect the information with what they already have.
• Self-planning: Urge your students to think about their assignments, and how they will structure them. This gives them extra room to "think about what they are studying" - metacognition.
• Self-monitoring: Student self-rating scales are an excellent way to understand what areas your students may require help. Develop online forms to assist students monitor their progress at the conclusion of each lesson/week, as per the schedule you prefer.
• Self-evaluation: This can happen regularly scheduled or at the end of the course. Since online courses are typically attended by self-motivated people, it is important that they see outcomes.

Alongside self-evaluation, you can use associations to help students learn and keep track of what they've learned. In order to make this method more efficient, it is essential to understand what your students already have learned. So,

• Before enlisting someone in the course, you should assess the level of their knowledge in order in order to judge if they're a good candidate for the course.
• If they're not and you are launching the course to help beginners be sure to develop your material so that they can relate what you teach to something they are already familiar with. It means you have to help them in the process of encoding.

There may be a need to employ methods such as image, chunking and the elaboration.

• Separate your courses into smaller chunks with engaging questions as well as online debates, Q&As as well as peer-support to keep your students engaged.
• Instruct your students to make associations with their previous knowledge by presenting content in a manner that's easily understood. This helps with using imagery for learning and retaining.
• Additionally, the online course will require the students to participate in the content active. This method, which is also referred to as elaboration, is essential to engage students and to form connections with their existing information to gain new knowledge.

Although these are all cognitive and metacognitive methods, it is impossible to ignore the role of motivational, emotional and theories of social learning.

    Incorporate social interaction and emotional expression in the mix    

The majority of students sign up for your class because they are unable to physically attend classes for different reasons. Online learning platforms provide a different option to traditional learning and provide better involvement in a lot of cases. However, it is essential to keep the online learning experience lively and enjoyable. The key is to use socio-affective strategies, which involve the interpersonal interaction and emotional reactions. Note that "affect" refers to feelings.

Here's how you can do that:

• You should be able to inspire your students and help them learn by modeling. Create feelings of wonder, excitement, satisfaction, contentment, joy, delight, and so on. It's pretty simple to create these types of emotions in your students.
• Gaming can make your students feel happy and satisfied after they reach specific levels of satisfaction.
• The giving of badges, certificates and other types positive reinforcement could help you install joy.
• If you provide an unexpected discount to students who are performing well You combine excitement and surprise. This makes learners more enthusiastic to continue learning.
• Use polling to develop games and tests after every fifteen minutes in order to keep students interested and encourage them to share the lessons they've learned through forums.
• As youngsters are more familiar with social media platforms It makes sense to incorporate social media in learning as well.

Humanize theory of information processing to create relatable online courses

The theory of information processing helps to comprehend how we keep and process information that we learn through our sense organs as well as our brain. Though this theory is valid in terms of how sensation & perception, and memory operate, it fails to describe social learning, nor the functions of motivation or emotions.

Furthermore, the human brain is very complex and cannot be reduced to how the computer works. In your role as teachers of creators, it's important to be aware of your students' innate needs and emotions in the forefront. By creating an engaging online learning environment and considering human limits, you are able to develop a successful online course which leaves an impression on the learners.

gives you various tools to help you create content for your course which is social and engaging. It allows you to create course content rooted in information processing techniques, yet acknowledges the fact that students are thought and expressing human beings who want to connect with each other while they learn. It has powerful social interaction tools that make it simple for you to create classes for groups and promote lively discussions among your students.

Through humanizing online learning, allows you to connect with your students through a fun and engaging way. If you want to know more about how it can assist you in creating courses that are based on psychological science, contact us right now.