- Information processing
Information processing is the change (processing) of
information in any manner detectable by an observer. As such, it is a process which "describes" everything which happens (changes) in the universe, from the falling of a rock (a change in position) to the printing of a text file from a digital computer system. In the latter case, aninformation processor is changing the form of presentation of that text file.Information processing may more specifically be defined in terms used byClaude E. Shannon as the conversion oflatent information intomanifest information Fact|date=February 2007. Latent and manifest information is defined through the terms of equivocation (remaining uncertainty, what value the sender has actually chosen), dissipation (uncertainty of the sender what the receiver has actually received) and transformation (saved effort of questioning - equivocation minus dissipation) Fact|date=February 2007.Within the field of
cognitive psychology , information processing is an approach to the goal of understanding human thinking. It arose in the 1940s and 1950s. The essence of the approach is to seecognition as being essentiallycomputational in nature, with "mind" being the "software" and the brain being the "hardware". The information processing approach in psychology is closely allied tocognitivism in psychology andfunctionalism in philosophy although the terms are not quite synonymous. Information processing may be sequential or parallel, either of which may be centralized ordecentralized (distributed). Theparallel distributed processing approach of the mid-1980s became popular under the nameconnectionism . In the early 1950sFriedrich Hayek was ahead of his time when he posited the idea of spontaneous order in the brain arising out of "decentralized networks of simple units" (neurons ). However, Hayek is rarely cited in the literature ofconnectionism .In the 1970s,
Abraham Moles andFrieder Nake were among the first to establish and analyze links between information processing andaesthetics .See also
*
Information Processing Language s (IPL), by Newell, Shaw, and Simon
*Educational psychology
*Information Processor
*Information science References
Bibliography
* Lehrl, S., and Fischer, B. (1990), "A Basic Information Psychological Parameter (BIP) for the Reconstruction of Concepts of Intelligence", "European Journal of Personality", 4, 259-286. [http://www.v-weiss.de/lehrl-full.html Eprint]
*Allen Newell (1990), "Unified Theories of Cognition", Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
*Frieder Nake (1974). Ästhetik als Informationsverarbeitung. (Aesthetics asinformation processing ). Springer, 1974, ISBN 3211812164, ISBN 9783211812167External links
*
Herbert Simon , [http://stills.nap.edu/readingroom/books/biomems/anewell.html Sketch of Allen Newell's lifetime accomplishments]
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