Ulric Neisser (2014) defined the study of human cognition as research that attempts to understand the underlying cognitive and brain processes by which incoming sensory stimuli are translated into information units or ‘representations’ understandable to us. This definition is in accordance with the view of perception based on the information processing paradigm. According to this scientific approach, our cognitive processors develop in a series of sequential stages (Mulder, 1983).
77 The general doctrine that subsumes the information processing approach is the scientific paradigm called ‘positivism’, a philosophical and political movement that was founded by Auguste Comte, who described the doctrine in a series of texts that were published between 1830 and 1842 (Bourdeau, 2018). Comte’s (1896) scientific approach can be understood as a research paradigm that emphasised the process of developing knowledge and understanding of the world by developing hypotheses about phenomena and then proving or disproving them using natural scientific principles (Mack, 2010). The information processing approach falls within this paradigm and tries to understand the overall development and functioning of the human mind and the mental structures underlying human cognition and intelligence based on such principles. In the study of human intelligence according to this approach, the focus is therefore on fundamental principles, founded on a solid foundation of proof and scientific methodology (Comte, 1896; 2000).
According to Comte (1896; 2000) the law governing this development of knowledge is that each branch of knowledge successfully passes through three different theoretical settings, namely, the theological or fictitious, the metaphysical, or abstract, and the scientific. The human mind employs three different philosophising modes, each essentially unique and arguably the opposite of the others. Therefore, the human mind approaches general phenomena on the aggregate of three different philosophies, each of which excludes the other. The primary point of departure is the fictitious or understanding, the final is the fixed, or definitive, whereas the second is understood as a mode of transition (the abstract) (Comte, 1896; 2000). In the final state, or positive state, the human mind seeks intelligence from searching for the absolute, definitive or fixed piece of information. This is where ideas of logic, reasoning and observation are intertwined and used as means to apply the study of knowledge, which are now understood as laws of facts (Comte, 1896; 2000). This philosophical theory of Comte was the departure point for the information processing paradigm. In this paradigm, cognition is an information
78 processing process that tries to make sense of the sensory information received from the world by virtue of ‘computations’ on transductions of this sensory information called ‘mental representations’ (Neisser, 2014).
David Marr (1982) contributed a significant amount of research on visual perception based on the information processing paradigm while focusing on how processes in the visual system extract information from the external world. His research, much of which was published posthumously (Marr, 1982; 2010) was influenced by work in artificial intelligence, and he tried to explain visual perception based on the information processing paradigm. In Marr’s information processing theory he attempted to ‘understand’ visual perception by quantifying the information that flows through the neurophysiology of the visual system (Gordon, 2004). The development of this theory was made possible by the discovery and recording of electric outputs or responses made by cells within the visual cortex of a cat (Hubel & Wiesel, 1962). This initial research led to a theory that the visual system deciphered and analysed visual information into specific components, and that the processes that do this are wired into the central nervous system (Wurtz, 2009). It is therefore clear that Marr (1982) adopted the information processing paradigm to develop a computational approach to visual perception (Passingham, 2017).
Comte (1896; 2000) described this paradigm within disciplines of natural science, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and later went to explain how the paradigm should be used to explain phenomena within social sciences (Bourdeau, 2018). The primary epistemological assumption within this scientific paradigm of information processing and visual perception is that knowledge is objective (Passingham, 2017). Here, knowledge is understood to be generated deductively from a theory or hypothesis and the truth within the knowledge is attained through the understanding that knowledge is based on laws of
79 indisputable truths achieved by logical, deductive processes (Mack, 2010). The methodological assumptions adopted in the natural sciences are used within this paradigm. From this perspective, Marr (1982) clearly distinguished between three levels of analysis of an information processing paradigm which could be directly related to the performance of a machine or computer. The levels of analysis are the computational level which is related to the function of the system. Secondly, the algorithm level is concerned with the operations of the system, clearly defining the representations of the input and outputs of the process. Lastly, the hardware implementation level is focused on how the hardware and representations of the operations can be carried out or realised in a physical form (Passingham, 2017).
The ontological assumptions associated with the information processing paradigm include the claim that reality is an external force to the researcher, and that it is represented by objects in space and time. Further, it is assumed that each object has specific meaning, independent of any form of consciousness attached to it, and that we make sense of reality by using mental functions such as encoding, storing, retrieving, deciding and comparing based on the information received from external stimuli (Mulder, 1983).
The main epistemological assumption is that reality is capable of being captured through our senses, perceptions and predictions (Mack, 2010). The researcher is the observer and mathematics is the medium used to describe the observations made within reality. Furthermore, we understand all knowledge to come from sensory experience, the only way to describe the sensory experience is through observation and experimentation, and we decipher this knowledge in a systematic manner. Thus, the methodology that is used in natural sciences to describe the world around has been adopted and used in social science, including psychology and is reflected in the information processing paradigm (Mack, 2010). The basic scientific
80 methodological approach associated with the information processing paradigm is the theoretical departure point of this research dissertation.