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 theory, they introduced the information processing model that has
three major components (Eggen & Kauchak, 1999, pp. 243-244):

Richard Atkinson Richard Shiffrin

Richard Chatham Atkinson (born March 19, is an professor American of psychology and cognitive science
and an academic administrator.
Richard Shiffrin (born March 13, 1942) is an American psychologist. Professor of cognitive science in the
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University, Bloomington. Shiffrin has
contributed a number of theories of attention and memory to the field of psychology.

•Information Processing -The model of learning that examines how we learn using the Mind As A Computer
metaphor. The Information Processing Model represents what happens when information flows through
various internal structures which are supposed to exist inside the learner.

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.

•Educational Implications of Multi Store Model of Memory by Atkinson and Shiffrin

1. Use attention signals.
2. Keep student’s attention engaged.
3. Respect attention limit.
4. Follow Chunking, Mnemonic Devices and Rehearsal techniques.
5. Help students for effective storage and retrieval.
6. Implicit and Explicit Memory.
7. Take efforts to minimize student’s forgetting.
8. Plan for Higher attention span

• Sensory memory is a stimuli from the environment (sight, sound, smell, etc.) constantly bombard our
body's mechanism for seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling. Sensory Memory also the initial
processing that transforms these stimuli into information so we can make sense of them.
• 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 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.

•Types of LTM
1. Explicit and Implicit memory - are both types of long-term memory. The information we memorize
conscious 05 explicit memory while the information we store or remember unconsciously is called
implicit memory.
2. Episodic memory - is responsible for storing about events (ie, episodes) that we have Experienced
in our lives. It involves conscious thought and is declarative.
3. Semantic Memory - is responsible for storing information about the world. This includes knowledge
about the meaning of words, as well as as general knowledge.
4. Procedural Memory - responsible for knowing how to do things. It Does not involve conscious ,
thought and is not declarative.
 5. Emotional Memory -is shorthand for denoting the memory of experiences that evoked an emotional
Reaction.

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 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.

•Criticism of Atkinson Shiffrin View of Learning

•The model is oversimplified, in particular when it suggests that both short-term and long-term memory
each operate in a single, uniform fashion. We now know is this not the case. It has now become apparent
that both short-term and long-term memory are more complicated that previously thought.
•It assumes that each of the stores works as an independent unit.
•The model does not explain memory distortion.
•The model does not explain why some things may be learned with a minimal amount of rehearsal.
 AGE COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Birth to 3 months •Focus on moving objects
•Demonstrate anticipatory behaviors, like rooting and
sucking at the site of a nipple or bottle

3-6 Months •Imitate facial expressions

•React to familiar sounds
•Recognize familiar faces
6-9 Months •Gaze longer at “impossible” things, such as an object.
•Understand the differences between animate and
inanimate objects

9-12 Months •Enjoy looking at picture books

•Respond with gestures and sounds

1-2 years old •Learn through exploration

•Point out familiar objects and people in picture books
•Tell the difference between “Me” and “You”

2-3 years old •Match objects with their uses

•Name objects in a picture book
•Sort objects by category (i.e., animals, flowers, trees,
etc.)
3-4 years old •Ask “why” questions to gain information
•Seek answers to questions
•Learn by observing and listening to instructions

4-5 years old •Create pictures that they often name and describe
•Count to five
•Draw the shape of a person
•Name and identify many colors

• COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT MILESTONES FROM BIRTH TO FIVE YEARS

References:

Saul Mcleod, PhD(2023). Atkinson and Shiffrin cognitive information processing theory.
Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/multi-store.html

Cherry.MSEd(2023). Cognitive development milestones from birth to Five years . Retrieved

from
https://www.verywellmind.com/cognitive-developmental-milestones-2795109

Trisha Frances.F.(2014).Information – Processing View (Atkinson Shiffrin). Retrieved from

https://teacherlibrariansassociation.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/atkinson-shiffrins-
information-processing-model/