Learners as information processors: Legacies and limitations of educational psychology's second metaphor

This essay examines the role of information-processing theories in the historical search for a guiding metaphor of educational psychology. First, I show how information processing can be viewed as the second in a series of three metaphors that developed during this century and, more specifically, as a bridge from associationist to constructivist visions of learning. Second, I provide a definition of information processing based on the premise that humans are processors of information. Third, I distinguish between literal and constructivist interpretations of two key elements in information-processing theory, namely, the nature of information and the nature of processing. Then, I summarize the contributions and limitations of the information-processing approach. Finally, I examine possible future directions for the search for educational psychology's guiding metaphor.