Human Information Processing. Psychology Assignment

Human Information Processing
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Human Information Processing
Human information processing is concerned with the collection, storage, interpretation, and retrieval of information. Understanding these processes as they occur in the human brain is essential in understanding creative thought, speech production, reading, and comprehension (Lachman, Lachman, & Butterfield, 2015). Through information processing, human beings can register what is happening in their surrounding in the present moment through sensory stimuli, encode the information, store it, and then retrieve it from their long-term memory in the future. The process of transforming the sensory stimuli into long-term memory where information can be retrieved occurs in four main stages, namely: sensory memory, short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory. This paper aims to describe the basic processes involved in information processing through human memory, which is a system often compared to a computer system. Also, this paper will discuss the four stages of memory in detail and create a clear picture of how information is processed, stored, and retrieved as needed in the human brain.
Basic Processes involved in Information Processing
Through memory, information is processed using three main steps, namely: encoding, storage, and retrieval. Encoding is the process by which information is converted into a form that can then be stored in the memory (Nevid, 2012). This input of information allows the sensory information to be stored in a useful form. Encoding can either be automatic or can involve conscious effort, or both. According to Nevid (2012), information is encoded in many ways, which include sound coding, visual coding, and semantic coding, which is coding by meaning. Once the information has been encoded, the next step entails storage. Storage is the process through which the encoded information is retained in the brain (Nevid, 2012). Through storage, a record of the information is created. Some records can be permanent and last forever, such as the record of crucial information that marked a life-changing event. These records are stored in long-term memory. Others are only stored for a second, and as such, they lack permanency. These records are stored in short-term memory. The duration that any information is held in the memory varies, and this will be discussed in detail in the next section that discusses the stages of memory. Stored memory is not always available to consciousness. Thus, the next step in information processing involves memory retrieval. This is the process through which the stored information is accessed and brought into conscious awareness (Nevid, 2012). Retrieval can be effortless sometimes, and sometimes it requires the use of cues to bring back the information. These cues, referred to as retrieval cues, involve associating a memory with something that happened during the input of information into the memory system (Nevid, 2012). Memory can be retrieved through recalling, relearning, and recognition. Recalling is the most effortless way of retrieving memories. Relearning happens when information that had already been stored in memory has been forgotten, and an individual has to learn the...