Cognitive Revolution: Comparison of Human Brain and Computer Processing

Running Head: COGNITIVE REVOLUTION1
Cognitive Revolution

Cognitive Revolution 2
Introduction
The cognitive revolution refers to an intellect movement which combines several of the
cognitive sciences. It integrates psychology, anthropology with the artificial intelligence and
neuroscience. The theory applies artificial intelligence and computer science to understand the
human mental process. It is a reverse-engineering approach which makes inferences about the
human decision-making and mental process. The cognitive revolution was developed as a
response to behaviorism which stated that the mental events are not publically observable;
therefore, their description should be avoided in the mental theories. The cognitive psychologists
stated that the investigation of different mental states can produce theories which can produce
reliable outcomes (Shaffer & Kipp, 2010). With the cognitive revolution, the psychologists tried
to use computer functioning to understand the functioning of the human brain.
The present essay examines whether the comparison of the human brain with the computer is
appropriate. The behaviorism has a significant influence on the social science and education. The
behaviorism has specific influence on the social science and education. This theory abolished the
influence of knowledge, feelings and attitude and replaced them with the positive and negative
reinforcements. It was stated that the human behavior is a combined influence of positive and
negative reinforcements. However, there were several discrepancies in this theory. In order to
address the shortcomings of the theory, information processing theory was developed. This
theory was developed as a part of the cognitive revolution (Bouchon-Meunier, Coletti & Yager,
2011). It tries to explain the manner in which the human mind transforms the sensory
information obtained through different sense organs. According to this model, the information

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obtained from the environment is subject to different mental processes. It is not dependent on the
stimulus-response pattern. The computers at this time were able to compute complex
mathematical problems at a very short time. Therefore, psychologists tried to understand the
functioning of the human brain with the computing system.
The information obtained through the environment undergoes different processes in the
cognitive system and cognitive system develop a sensible information out of it. The information
attained through various means can take different paths to develop into meaningful information.
There are several different paths such as attention, encoding, recognition and storage of the
information. The theory is used in various psychology fields such as cognitive development,
neuroscience and artificial science (Lachman, Lachman, Butterfield, 2015).
The cognitive revolution led to the development of this theory and the major catalyst in the
development of this theory is the invention of computer. The model is developed so that the
mental processes can be represented as that of computer. This model encompasses the internal
processes which are essential in understanding the psychology of human mind.
The development of this model is based on several factors. It has been deduced that long span of
time can increase the processing of information to increase the efficiency in the processing of the
information. With time or practice, a person can increase his ability to attend the stimulus,
identification of patterns, encoding and the retrieval of information. With time, the individuals
increase the capability to process information, association and categorization of input. The model
states that the information processes before becomes a part of the long-term memory. It states

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that the human behavior is developed by nature and nurture for the changes in the development
(Lindsay & Norman, 2013).
As per this model, the humans are routinely compared with the computers. The
comparison between the humans and the computer provides a better understanding of the manner
in which the information is processed in the human minds. The computers are considered as a
new method to study the intelligence and obtain information regarding the processing of the
study of the human minds. The human processing of the information is directly compared to the
computer processing of the information. This information is send as an input to the human brain.
The information is encoded and compared to the previously stored information.
The working memory of the human brain is also considered to work in the similar manner. In the
next step, the information is stored from where it can be retrieved and accessed when required.
The human brain processing also has three steps, namely, encoding, storage and retrieval of
information. If the children faces unfamiliar information, they develop strategies to process the
information (Reed, 2012). They encode the information, store it and easily access at a later time.
As per this model, the method of storing the information in the memory differs as per the age of
the child. When the child develops, he develops cognitive abilities which can increase the
memory capacity and contribute to the development of child.
As a result, the older children have high capability to develop the memory strategies on their
own. They can also identify which memory strategies are appropriate for storing different types
of information. They are better to identify the important information ad filter unnecessary