The mind as a computer
![Picture](/uploads/1/0/3/6/103623288/mind-as-computer_orig.gif)
‘Cognitive psychology sees the individual as a processor of information, in much the same way that a computer takes in information and follows a program to produce an output’ (S.McLeod, 2008)
As a result of our surroundings and environment, sensory receptors (eyes, ears, touch, smell and taste) deliver information to the brain which is processed, stored, and a response may occur if required. Psychologists have likened the human Information Processing System, ‘the mind’, to a model based on the computer (figure 1.1). Similar to the human mind, the computer receives stimuli from the environment, has a short term memory, mental processing, working through memory and a long term memory.
The working memory processes the incoming sensory information (encoding) and constructs relations to existing knowledge. The information processed at one time in the working memory is limited, and only stored for a restricted amount of time. Once processed, the information is retained (retention) and transferred to the long term memory, if not forgotten. This information can be accessed at a later date through the retrieval system. This pathway is described in Figure 1.2. McInerney (2014) compares the working memory of the human mind to the ‘workpad’ or ‘jotter’, whereas the long-term memory he refers to as the ‘thumb drive’ or ‘hard disk’ as it is long term and with unlimited capacity.
The computer analogy has been an important influence on psychology as it was partly responsible for the cognitive approach becoming more dominant than the behavioural approach in psychology (S. McLeod, 2008). The model gave psychologists a platform to link the process of learning, and what happens in the mind for learning to occur.
The below YouTube video is a sequence of clips from the Disney animated movie, Inside Out. Although the film is about emotions and not learning as such, it is an excellent example of how the brain can be depicted as a computer. Watch the clip below, and see how the information processing theory of the brain as a computer comes to life in the movie.