One of the basic tenets of cognitive theory is that information
that is present in an instructional stimulus is acted upon by
a variety of mediating processes before the student produces a response.
Information processing accounts of cognition describe
stages that information moves through in the cognitive system
and suggests processes that operate at each step.
This section therefore begins with a general account of human information processing.
This account sets the stage for our consideration of
cognition as symbol manipulation and as knowledge construction