Information Processing Theory

Information processing theory emerged from Turing's work in the 1960s in which humans' cognitive processing was compared to processing used in a computer. This was a response to radical behaviorism, which could not account for reading, perceptual inversion, and cognitive maps. This systems engineering of the mind attempts to isolate behavioral or electrophysiological effects to a given processing stage. This entry briefly applies information processing theory to age differences in processing speed, divided attention, and emotional threat perception.