<P> This theory views humans as actively inputting, retrieving, processing, and storing information . Context, social content, and social influences on processing are simply viewed as information . Nature provides the hardware of cognitive processing and Information Processing theory explains cognitive functioning based on that hardware . Individuals innately vary in some cognitive abilities, such a memory span, but human cognitive systems function similarly based on a set of memory stores that store information and control processes determine how information is processed . The "Nurture" component provides information input (stimuli) that is processed resulting in behavior and learning . Changes in the contents of the long - term memory store (knowledge) are learning . Prior knowledge affects future processing and thus affects future behavior and learning . </P> <P> Information processing theory combines elements of both quantitative and qualitative development . Qualitative development occurs through the emergence of new strategies for information storage and retrieval, developing representational abilities (such as the utilization of language to represent concepts), or obtaining problem - solving rules (Miller, 2011). Increases in the knowledge base or the ability to remember more items in working memory are examples of quantitative changes, as well as increases in the strength of connected cognitive associations (Miller, 2011). The qualitative and quantitative components often interact together to develop new and more efficient strategies within the processing system . </P> <P> Information Processing Theory is currently being utilized in the study of computer or artificial intelligence . This theory has also been applied to systems beyond the individual, including families and business organizations . For example, Ariel (1987) applied Information Processing Theory to family systems, with sensing, attending, and encoding of stimuli occurring either within individuals or within the family system itself . Unlike traditional systems theory, where the family system tends to maintain stasis and resists incoming stimuli which would violate the system's rules, the Information Processing family develops individual and mutual schemes which influence what and how information is attended to and processed . Dysfunctions can occur both at the individual level as well as within the family system itself, creating more targets for therapeutic change . Rogers, P.R. et al (1999) utilized Information Processing Theory to describe business organizational behavior, as well as to present a model describing how effective and ineffective business strategies are developed . In their study, components of organizations that "sense" market information are identified as well as how organizations attend to this information; which gatekeepers determine what information is relevant / important for the organization, how this is organized into the existing culture (organizational schemas), and whether or not the organization has effective or ineffective processes for their long - term strategy . </P>

The information-processing theory was inspired by the knowledge of how