The human brain is a sophisticated electrochemical processor that is “far greater in complexity, speed and sophistication than the most advanced digital computer known” (Dabbagh 2). The thought process is a cyclical phenomenon that goes from initial attention or sensory perception to emitted stimulus, feedback, and performance. In Gagne’s model of information processing, the seven following steps are involved from sensory stimulus (vision, touch, taste, etc.) through performance or response:
One or more of the body’s Receptors (e.g., sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste) sense information.
Immediately after sensing, the act of selective perception occurs within a Sensory Register.
The information may then be stored, temporarily, in Short Term or Working Memory.
After existing in Working Memory for a millisecond in the form of auditory, articulator, or visual data, the information is subject to rehearsal and may be moved to Long Term Storage.
Semantic encoding occurs upon rehearsal of information to be stored, and the information is permanently stored in Long Term Memory and is subject to search and retrieval.
The processes of search and retrieval are performed by the Response Generator, which can initiate recall directly from Long Term Memory or move the information into working or “conscious” memory.
The Response Generator then tells the Effectors or muscles what action to take (e.g., facial expression, moving, speaking, etc.) and the response can be emitted back to the environment.
It is the receptors or human sensors that transform data perceived by the senses into neural information. Neural information is then moved through the body’s nervous system like a system of wiring until it is transmitted to the brain as electrochemical data. In the brain the data is briefly stored in the sensory register, but only long enough for the information to be processed. The brain within milliseconds dec...