ElmCore Journal of Educational Psychology October, 2014 | Page 41

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the intervening influences of previous information and
the experiences of the person. This demonstrates that
knowledge units are not simply stored and then left
alone, but that they are retained, manipulated, and
changed as new knowledge is acquired.
Despite disagreement on many levels, there
is general agreement among most cognitive
psychologists on some basic principles of the
information processing system Huitt (2000). First,
there is the “assumption of a limited capacity.”
Depending on the theory, these limitations occur at
different points in information processing, but it is
widely held in all models that there are limitations as
to how much and at what rate new information can be
encoded, stored and retrieved (e.g., Broadbent, 1975;
Case, 1978) Most cognitive psychologists also agree
that there exists some type of control system for
dealing with stimuli (e.g., Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1971).
Again, exactly how and where the controls operate is a
question of some debate, but the actuality of some
type of system that requires some processing capacity
is generally accepted.
The belief in the interaction of new
information with stored information is a third key
point of cognitive study. This is usually demonstrated
with a bottom-up or top-down system or a
combination of the two. A bottom-up system is
predicated on the belief that new information is seen
as an initiator which the brain attempts to match with
existing concepts in order to break down
characteristics or defining attributes (e.g., Gibson,
1979). A top-down system seems to suggest an
opposite approach. The existing information is the
initiator and memory representations are evaluated,
then matched to the stimuli (e.g., Miller, Galanter, &
Pribram, 1960).

around them (Flavell, Miller, & Miller, 2002). After
that, infants begin to vocalize the sounds of the mother
tongue and omit sounds not found in that language
(Jusczyk, 1997). It has also been discovered that
infants begin to lose the ability to discriminate sounds
not in the mother tongue at about six to seven months
of age (Werker & Tees, 1999). All of these factors
play a significant role in the development and
understanding of how the mind operates, but they are
only the starting point, or maybe more accurately the
dividing point, for more in depth models for
information processing.

The Stage Model

Traditionally, the most widely used model
of information processing is the stage theory model,
based on the work of Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968).
The key elements of this model are that it views
learning and memory as discontinuous and multistaged. It is hypothesized that as new information is
taken in, it is in some way manipulated before it is
stored. The stage theory model recognizes three types
or stages of memory: sensory memory, short-term or
working memory, and long-term memory.

Finally, there is also agreement that humans
have specific genetic traits that dictate the method by
which they gain new information. For example, all
human infants make the same vocalizations during the
first six months, regardless of the language spoken
Figure 1. A stage model of memory

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