What is Information Processing theory?
Until about 50 years ago, psychologists were wary of trying to explain the 'internal workings' of human beings. They saw the mind as an enigma and so they focused on observable behaviours as their best evidence. They either set up laboratory experiments or systematically watched human behaviours in natural settings, including those of children, in order to attempt to explain the how and what of learning.
When working on a large research project in the early 1970s, I was instructed that I must not ask the children questions about what I had observed. The methods were similar to those used by colleagues who were observing apes and we were supposed to keep the data 'clean' and scientific. It was only over the next 30 years that approaches to research widened, to try to understand how the shared meanings and cultures in a community influenced children's development.
Meanwhile, new ideas from four areas of study - genetics, brain research, and the sciences of mind and evolution - were developing too. With the advent of computers and Artificial Intelligence came the prospect of modelling how minds might work.
David Wood and David Klahr both argue that Information Processing is more an approach than a theory. Its beauty is that it offers a language for modelling particular areas of human activity involved in cognition.
Key features of Information Processing approaches to cognitive development The main ideas Information Processing theorists put forward include:
* the assumption that children manipulate symbols during mental activity and that these symbolic processes are part of a system
* the proposition that cognitive development occurs when that information processing system modifies itself (this reminds us of Piaget's accommodation and assimilation, as well as Alison Gopnik's team's claim, in How Babies Think, that young children's brains reprogramme themselves as a result of experiences).
The main methods used by Information Processing researchers include:
* exploring and modelling the changes in cognitive processing over relatively short time spans so they can observe those changes; using data about errors and error patterns (for example in maths calculations); representing complex, dynamic systems through diagrams and notation, such as flow charts and tree diagrams
* using computer simulations of human thought, as well as using computers as models analogous to human information processing systems.
How can Information Processing approaches help us understand and provide for young children's learning?
Early Information Processing work in the 1950s by George Miller showed that adults have a relatively fixed channel capacity (think of television channels) - that is, they find it difficult to deal with more than seven random items. Even adults in unfamiliar situations in which they are expected to note and use different features will be confused and make mistakes.
So we need to recognise that young children do not have the same capacity for information processing and reflect on how we present activities and information to them, limiting the number of different features or items we expect them to take in at one time.
Further, the ability to organise information and the speed with which they can do this will be less developed in children than in adults, and adults will be better at thinking ahead because greater experience has led to greater expertise. For example, adults can subitize (see groups of objects as members of sets) more readily than children can; expert readers process larger chunks of text than a beginner does.
Information Processing theorists agree with Piaget that memory, perception, understanding and knowledge are not only related, but change during development and learning. Adults think and act more smoothly than children because they have lived for longer and had a wider range of experiences.
But even children who are expert in one area may not be as sure in their information processing in other areas, so we should always use our observations of what individual children can do, in our planning.
Additionally, we need to think carefully about how we will present those activities, making sure we present them contingently:
* appropriately for the children's current knowledge and experience
* involving the children in what we do
* pointing out what we mean
* sharing through talk and materials
* using as many senses as possible to explain a shape, texture, how things fit together, and so on.
Another way we can help children develop information processing skills is by modelling our own perception, thinking, remembering, planning, problem solving by thinking out loud - and by reminding them of their own previous successful problem solving.
Criticisms of Information Processing theory Early criticisms of Information Processing theory focused on the impossibility of machines being as capable as humans, particularly in areas requiring reflection, judgement and creativity. Steven Pinker argues that artificiail intelligence researchers have now developed machines that can perform feats which had been considered uniquely human, such as voice and face recognition, the correction of spelling, and the diagnosis of diseases.
All the more reason for us to ensure children are well educated and become skilled organisers so they control and make decisions about their use of machines (computers, mobile phones, television, for example), rather than being controlled by them.
A further criticism might be that Information Processing theory focuses on individual children's learning and we have begun to recognise that children develop through collective action and processes. An example illustrating this comes from the days when I was an early years practitioner. I was always filled with admiration at the start of each new term, when children who had been the younger members of the group took on the role of experts, cared for newcomers and assisted staff. They had clearly observed and understood the responsibilities the older children assumed for themselves and internalised this as tacit knowledge. They collectively and individually took up the new role as smoothly as if they had been instructed.
How theories help us develop practice and policy This series of articles has focused on only six theories about child development, but its main message is, I hope, that we all theorise and that we can use others' theories to extend and enhance our own. We can also ask ourselves what this means about our thinking, policy and practice.
Bridie Raban and her colleagues at Melbourne University in Australia have been developing a form of self-evaluation based on practitioners'
theoretical preferences, encouraging them to broaden their perspectives and consider the implications for children. Similarly, Tina Bruce urges us to realise how theories 'help us to predict and anticipate how children might behave and react. They help us structure what we observe. We may find our observations fit with theories. We may find that they do not. This will help us think deeply...' NW
Tricia David is Emeritus Professor of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University College
Suggested reading
* Bruce, T (2001) Learning Through Play: Babies, Toddlers and the Foundation Years. London: Hodder and Stoughton
* Klahr, D (1992) 'Information Processing Approaches', in R Vasta (ed) Six Theories of Child Development. London: Jessica Kingsley
* Pinker, S (2002) The Blank Slate. London: Penguin
* Wood, D (1998) How Children Think and Learn: the social context of cognitive development. (2nd edition). Oxford: Basil Blackwell