EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 2, page 29

theory presents a more specific account of the cognitive processes that occur during learning. In contrast
to these behaviorism and social cognitive theories, information processing theory has little to say about
rewards and punishments.
According to the information processing theory, information moves through various memory stores
until it can be stored in a long-term or permanent memory store; cognitive processes operate on this
information as it moves from one memory store to another (A. D. Baddeley, 1996; Miller, 1956; A.
Newell & H. Simon, 1972). Figure 2.1 displays the main memory stores of the information processing
system (the boxes in the diagram), together with the processes (the labeled arrows) that operate on the
information. The memory stores include the sensory register, short-term memory (also called working
memory), and long-term memory. Some of the key processes that operate on this information in these
three memory stores are perception, rehearsal, encoding, and retrieval.

Figure 2.1 The main memory stories and main processes of the information
processing system.

Sensory

Register

Short-term Memory

= Working Memory

Long-term Memory

Metacognitive

Knowledge

Procedural

Knowledge

Declarative

Knowledge

rehearse

Episodic

knowledge

perception (^) retrieve
encode
In the following sections, we will illustrate the key concepts of information processing theory by following
the learning process of a fourth grader, Rachel, who is reading a text about aquatic animals. We will focus
on what happens when she reads a sentence that surprises her, “Lobsters taste food with hairs on their
legs.”