Information metaphor

J. Miller was a philologist by training. After graduating in
For ten years he worked at Harvard University, studying speech communication. In his first monograph “Language and Communication” (1951)
The results of his research in the field of psycholinguistics were summarized [Miller, 1976]. In the 1950s, he became interested in the problems of processing
formation and modeling of human thinking using a computer.
Together with his friend J. Bruner, he creates a research center.
for the study of thinking processes at Harvard University. Its name, the Center for Cognitive Research, served to designate
all scientific direction. The name "cognitive psychology" authors
used to contrast their direction of behaviorism
and, in the words of J. Miller himself [Miller J. et al., 1965], "it does not imply any meaningful content." It was about psi
a chemistry that should not only deal with behavior research,
but also mental processes, i.e. about "mental" or "mental"
psychology. Therefore, the subject of the Center’s research was processes
perception, memory, mental representations, thinking, understanding
and spoken language.
W. Nysser was a student of J. Miller. The choice of the direction of his research was also influenced by his acquaintance with gestalt psychology and information theory. An important role was played by communication with Abraham Maslow -
one of the largest scientists of our time, the founder of humanistic psychology. Book of W. Nysser "Cognitive Psychology",
published in 1961, became the theoretical foundation of a new direction in the study of cognitive processes. Originally
Nicer saw cognition as a linear sequential process
step-by-step processing of information, including the acquisition of sensory data, their reduction, processing, accumulation, reproduction and use. The process of processing information by a person is carried out according to certain programs, and this is its similarity to processing
computer information. Computer software acts as a structural model, and its functioning as a functional-dynamic model of human cognition.
In 1976, W. Nysser published his second fundamental work, Cognition and Reality [Nysser, 1981]. He urged cognitive psychologists to go beyond laboratory cognitive research.
processes and turn to the study of cognition of a person in the real conditions of his life. The declared program brings together the position of W. Nysser with the position of the leaders of environmental psychology and leads to the synthesis of these two main directions of the psychology of cognition. Weak
The environmental validity of cognitive psychology research has been
the main subject of criticism in this direction from the founder of the ecological concept of Gibson's perception.
U. Nysser himself considers a person as an active system, and the process of cognition as a continuous process of testing cognitive hypotheses. W. Nysser introduces the concept of cognitive circuitry. Cognitive circuit
allows you to assimilate environmental information by separating
known from the unknown. It is amodal and generalized and therefore allows the processing and assimilation of information having
various modality. The cognitive cycle includes the processes of anticipation (anticipation) of information coming from outside, its isolation
from a stream, organization with the help of a cognitive (“directing”) scheme and motor search activity, which helps to obtain new information.
The individual perceives integral scenes of life. These scenes are recognized and stored in memory, and, if necessary, are used to regulate behavior. Thus, the theory of frames arises, i.e. the idea that the mental unit of information that is stored in
long-term memory and regulates the actions of the individual, is a holistic reality scene - a frame. Separate frames are interconnected
system of “addresses” and “links”. The very analogue of memory is hypertext. The frame theory we will consider below.
"~ Cognition in the model of W. Nysser is considered as a continuous, active process, passing through the interaction of man and the environment. It is always relevant and is based on previous experience, on the basis of which an anticipating scheme arises. The model of W. Nysser does not need a" homunculus ", for the subject is the active cognitive structure itself.
Advocates of the cognitive information approach rely on
the concept of isomorphism of mental cognitive mechanisms
processes of all levels: from sensory-perceptive to mental. With their
point of view, any cognitive process is cyclical in nature and consists of the stages of the hypothesis, receiving information, testing the hypothesis. Moreover, there may be several hypotheses, each of which is attributed to the subjective probability of being confirmed or
disproved. Hypotheses are based on past experience, relevant
motivation and action program.

Outside the brackets is the mechanism of generating hypotheses and the formation of an actual set of plausible
hypotheses, as well as the mechanism of their refutation and correction.
Information metaphor using terms from theory and practice
programming, more free to interpret than computer
metaphor (metaphor for "iron"). If the latter proceeded from the principle
structural isomorphism of man and computer architecture, then no one
He does not dare to say that the “software” of a person is identical in structure and function to the software of a computer. Bo-
Moreover, cardinal differences between them are possible. Informational
metaphor is more flexible.
Considering the process of cognition, informational (more correctly called
his information-algorithmic) approach says nothing about the mechanisms of generation of subjective reality, its functions and nature, about
nature and functions of consciousness. Moreover, it is clear that the “cognitive”
schemes, and "mental" operations, and information processing mechanisms
not recognized by the subjects, and therefore, these entities should either
attributed to unconscious mental processes, or removed beyond the boundaries of psychology in general.
Cognitive psychologists have long come to the conclusion that the processes of cognition proceed at two levels - conscious and unconscious. Physiologists knew about the existence of a reaction to subthreshold stimuli as early as
The main theoretical approaches in cognitive psychology
the first half of the XX century. Cognitive psychologists have concluded that
information processing processes are faster and more efficient on
unconscious level, regardless of its complexity. Sometimes inevitable
the question arises of the role of consciousness in the regulation of human behavior.
In any case, the process of processing information is carried out as
process is parallel-sequential, coordinated flow
at least at two levels - conscious and unconscious. Despite the fact that psychologists are focused on a cognitive approach,
revived the method of introspection and turned it into a “measurable introspection”, today researchers are convinced of the inaccessibility of the processes of information processing for introspection, including making judgments, making decisions, identifying the causal connection between phenomena or situations and their own behavior.

See also