ABSTRACT
Information processing includes a number of cognitive functions: (1) receptive: the acquisition, classification, processing, and integration of information, (2) memory and learning: the storing and recall of information, (3) thinking: the organization and reorganization of information, and (4) expressive: the communication and enactment of information (Werry, 1991). Problematic information processing may be related to attention, memory, interpretation, response search, response selection, or failure of integration (Crick & Dodge, 1994; Mash & Dozois, 2003). Such processing has been implicated in a number of childhood disorders and problems (Mash & Barkley, 2003; Mash & Dozois). Theorists suggest that knowledge acquired throughout life is represented in memory in the form of schemas: abstract, generic knowledge structures (Siegel, 1996). Within an information processing framework, PTSD is characterized by dysfunctional schemas; for example, the world is conceived as indiscriminately dangerous, and the self as incompetent to cope with stress (March, Amaya-Jackson, Foa, & Treadwell, 1999). Siegel (2003) points out, “Impairment in representational integration in general, including the bilateral integration of information processing between right and left hemispheres in particular, may be a core deficit in unresolved trauma” (p. 15). Some aspects of information processing were discussed in earlier chapters. Information processing, dissociation, and their relationships to trauma and assessment are discussed here.
