Information Processing Model: Study with Video Lessons, Practice Problems & Examples

Information Processing Model

This video we're going to be going over one of the most famous models of memory, the information processing model. So back in the 1960s cognitive psychologists were learning a lot about computers and they noticed how computers kind of process information in very specific ways, sort of like input, storage, and then output. And they began to wonder if human brains might work in similar ways, and thus the information processing model was born. The idea basically being that our memory system basically works the way that a computer does. And so this model breaks memory down into 3 main steps.

Now we are going to go over each of these steps in much more detail coming up in the chapter, but just to kind of briefly introduce them the first step is known as encoding. And this is basically the brain's ability to convert incoming information into a form that our brain can process. So basically turning this incoming information into the electrical signals that our brain can actually work with and making sure that those signals get to the correct places in our brain. So that is encoding, the kind of information just getting into our brain. Next up, we have storage, and storage is basically our ability to keep relevant information over time.

And we believe that we have 3 types of storage systems: sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory, and we'll of course go over each of those in much more detail later on. And then finally the 3rd step is retrieval, which is our ability to access stored information at a later date. So basically your ability to retrieve or recall information that is stored in your long term memory. Alright, so that is the information processing model kind of in a nutshell and I will see you guys in our next video to start going over each of these steps in more detail. Bye bye.

Information Processing Model Example 1

Alright, so for this one, for all of these statements here, we're going to be writing a "t" on the line if the statement is true and an "f" on the line if the statement is false. So "a" reads retrieval involves learning new information, and that is false. Right? Retrieval is literally just our ability to retrieve or recall information that is stored in long term memory. At that point, the information has come into our brain through encoding.

It has been deemed relevant by storage and actually kept and maintained in long-term memory, and so that's kind of the more learning piece of things, it kind of getting into long-term memory in the first place. Retrieval is just your ability to remember it, essentially. So, that first one is false. Next up, "b" reads encoding is a way that we convert information into signals the brain can understand, and that is true. That's pretty much the definition of encoding, so we'll write "t" for that one.

And then "c" reads, during storage the brain determines what information is relevant, and that is also true. In that kind of storage process any irrelevant information is going to get booted out. We don't want to remember all kinds of irrelevant information basically clogging up and just taking up space, right. We only want to keep things that are actually relevant to us. And then finally, "d" reads the information processing model of memory is likened to a computer and that is also true.

This model was inspired by cognitive psychologists kind of learning more about how computers work and thinking maybe human brains work in kind of a similar way. Alright, so there you guys have it and I will see you in the next one. Bye bye.

In the information processing model, what is the primary purpose of encoding?

• A. To eliminate irrelevant information.
• B. To store information for months or even years.
• C. To convert incoming information into a format that can be used by the brain. 
• D. To recall memories.