Critically discuss Sternberg’s Information processing approach.

 Information Processing approach:

Information Processing is how individuals perceive, analyze, manipulate, use, and remember information. Unlike Piaget’s theory, this approach proposes that cognitive development is ongoing and gradual, not organized into distinct stages.

The areas of basic cognitive changes generally occur in five areas:

i. Attention: Improvements are seen in selective attention(the process by which one focuses on one stimulus while tuning out another), as well as divided attention (the ability to pay attention to two or more stimuli at the same time).

ii. Memory: Improvements are seen in working memory and long-term memory.

iii. Processing Speed: With maturation, children think more quickly. Processing speed improves sharply between age five and middle adolescence, levels off around age 15, and does not appear to change between late adolescence and adulthood.

iv. Organization of Thinking: As children mature, they are more planful, they approach problems with strategy, and are flexible in using different strategies in different situations.

v. Metacognition: Older children can think about thinking itself. This often involves monitoring one’s own cognitive activity during the thinking process.

Metacognition provides the ability to plan ahead, see the future consequences of an action, and provide alternative explanations of events.

Sternberg’s Information processing approach: 

Another theorist firmly grounded in the information processing approach is Sternberg (1988). Sternberg’s theory suggests that development is skills-based and continuous rather than staged and discontinuous as stage theorists believe, and his focus is on intelligence. This focus on intelligence separates his ideas from stage theorists because it rejects the idea of incremental stages, but rather suggests that development occurs in the same way throughout life differentiated only by the expertise of the learner to process new information.

First, and very importantly, Sternberg’s model does not differentiate between child and adult learning.  Also, he deals solely with information processing aspects of development and does not incorporate any facets of biological development into his theory. Cognitive development is viewed as a novice to expert progression; as one becomes better at interaction and learning, one is able to learn more and at higher levels. Development changes as a result of feedback, self-monitoring, and automatisation.

In Sternberg’s model, each of these three components works together to facilitate learning and cognitive development. Meta components are executive in nature. They guide the planning and decision making in reference to problem solving situations; they serve to identify the problem and connect it with experiences from the past. There is, however, no action directly related to meta components, they simply direct what actions will follow. Performance components are the actions taken in the completion of a problem-solving task.

Performance components go beyond meta components in that they perform the function also of weighing the merit and or consequences of actions in comparison to other options rather than simply identifying options. Sternberg’s third proposed type of intelligence is the knowledge acquisition component. This type is characterized by the ability to learn new information in order to solve a potential problem. This three-leveled view of intelligence comprises the componential aspect of Sternberg’s theory, but this is only one of three parts to his larger triarchic theory of intelligence.

Sternberg’s theory adds the components of feedback to theories of cognitive development; this suggests that an individual’s social interaction has some impact on cognitive development.

In fact, one of the three parts of his theory is based on the context in which learning takes place; this subpart of the theory “specifies that intelligent behaviour is defined by the sociocultural context in which it takes place and involves adaptation to the environment, selection of better environments, and shaping of the present environment”. The addition of social context as a factor in cognitive development links Sternberg to the interactional theories of development of Bruner and Vygotsky. These theories, and others of this type, are premised on the assumption that learning does not occur in a vacuum.

Therefore, one must discuss the social and cultural contexts of learning. Driscoll says, “Of central importance is viewing education as more than curriculum and instructional strategies.  Rather, one must consider the broader context in how culture shapes the mind and provides the toolkit by which individuals construct worlds and their conceptions of themselves and their powers”. These theories all work under the assumption that new information can most effectively be learned if the material can be matched to memory structures already in place.

Most theories hold that the mind contains some type of framework into which new information is placed. This structure is multi-leveled and has varying degrees of specificity. New information can be matched with, compared to, contrasted to, joined with, or modified to fit with existing structures. This in-place structural system allows for differing levels of complexity of information processing. The formation of and continual building of these structures, then, is critical in order for learners to process information in various ways and at higher levels.

Information processing is the way an individual decides to go about performing a mental task or solve problems. Sternberg’s work has emphasized the importance of real-world problem-solving and reasoning, and encompasses a broader variety of skills. Sternberg propagated the following steps which he felt an individual uses while processing information. 

i. Encoding

ii. Inferring

iii. Mapping

iv. Application

V. Justification

vi. Response

Sternberg invented Triarchic theory of intelligence taking into account the way human beings process information in executing a mental task.

Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence describes three kinds of intelligence:

i. Componential: Componential intelligence involves the ability to learn, acquire new knowledge, and use it effectively.

ii. Experimental: Experimental intelligence is illustrated by adjusting well to new tasks, using new information, and responding effectively in new situations.

iii. Contextual: Contextual intelligent people enhance their strengths and overcome their weaknesses, and they work to achieve a good match between their skills and their settings.

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