Learners as information processors: Legacies and limitations of educational psychology's second..
- 1 June 1996
- journal article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Educational Psychologist
- Vol. 31 (3-4) , 151-161
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.1996.9653263
Abstract
This essay examines the role of information-processing theories in the historical search for a guiding metaphor of educational psychology. First, I show how information processing can be viewed as the second in a series of three metaphors that developed during this century and, more specifically, as a bridge from associationist to constructivist visions of learning. Second, I provide a definition of information processing based on the premise that humans are processors of information. Third, I distinguish between literal and constructivist interpretations of two key elements in information-processing; theory, namely, the nature of information and the nature of processing. Then, I summarize the contributions and limitations of the information-processing approach. Finally, I examine possible future directions for the search for educational psychology's guiding metaphor.Keywords
This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: