

INTELLIGENCE AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES:

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s
Cognitive Information Processing Theory

Cognitive Information Processing Theory (Atkinson and Shiffrin)

Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin are the foremost two theorists who
are associated with the cognitive information
processing theory. In 1968, they proposed a
multi-stage theory of memory that explains
how an information goes through a process
from the moment it is received (or sensed),
then processed, until it is stored in the
memory. Relative to the theoy, they
introduced the information processing model
that has three major components (Eggen &
Kauchak, 1999, pp. 243-244):

1. Information stores – repositories used

to hold information. Three types of
storage are assumed: sensory, short-
term (working), and long-term.

2. Cognitive processes – intellectual actions that transform information and

move it from one store to another. Processes include attention,
perception, rehearsal, encoding, and retrieval.

3. Metacognition – knowing about and having control over cognitive

processes; a form of self-regulation. Metacognition controls and directs
the processes that move information from one store to another
 The multi-stage theory of memory explains how information is received by
the sensory memory, processed in the short term memory (or working memory)
and stored in the long term memory. This information-processing model shows
that information which enters the brain is briefly recorded in sensory memory.
Once you focus your attention on it, the information may become part of short
term memory (STM), where it can be manipulated and used (thus, working
memory). Through encoding procedures like repetition and rehearsal,
information may be transported to long-term memory (STL). Retrieving
information from the LTM when needed in problem solving or in answering a
question in a test makes them active again in the STL. In particular ways, the
human memory and the computer memory are comparable. The LTM somewhat
functions like a hard drive of computer both taking lengthier time to respond
but can store a huge quantity of data.
The sensory memory serves as a tentative holding place for data.
Information enters the human information processing system through a variety
of channels associated with senses like:
 Iconic memory, a sensory memory for vision that lasts just milliseconds
before fading
 Echoic memory, sensory memory that registers specific auditory
information
 Haptic memory, sensory memory for touch (pressure, hot, cold,
and pain)
In the short-term memory, information arrives through encoding (and
rehearsal). Information that enters STM fades away, or decays as soon as it is
no longer attended to within 30 seconds. Decay is a kind of forgetting that
happens when short term memories fade over time.
Long-term memory is the relatively permanent information storage
system. Information is retained and retrieved for hours, weeks, or years.
Storing information in LTM is equivalent to writing information out to a
computer hard drive. Permanent losses may occur as a result of brain damage,
and it is as well possible that some memories just decay away if they aren ‟t
retrieved for a very long time.
LTM has several categories like declarative memory and
procedural memory. Declarative memory is also called explicit memory as it is
the retention of facts, data, events like remembering information for a test or
that you have an appointment with your adviser, your home address and
telephone number, email addresses and passwords, pin numbers, names
associated with people‟s characterisics and the like. Declarative memory
provides for representations of relations beyond the province of events,
encompassing the relations among the facts that constitute our knowledge of
the world. This idea indicates further critical distinction: between episodic
memory, which contains autobiographical records of personally experienced
events, and semantic memory, consisting of world knowledge stored outside of
personal contexts (Tulving, 1972). Episodic memory is recollection of
personal details like first day in the university or your sister ‟s graduation
day while semantic memory is recollection of the universal or common
knowledge like the names of colors, the sounds of the alphabets, the
capitals of nations and other essential facts learned over a lifetime.
Procedural memory is a type of long-term memory involving how to
perform different actions and skills. Essentially, it is the memory of how
to do certain things as riding a bicycle, typing on a keyboard, playing a
musical instrument, swimming, driving, surfing the Net, joining a virtual
seminar or learning a particular technology.

THINK!

Create a summary chart that presents the major concepts of the various
concepts of intelligence and their application in the classroom.