ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the practical, technological problems to which the theory and the research may be applied. Because the framework is relatively new, much of its potential for practical application has yet to be realized. The chapter discusses four areas in which the information-processing view of man may prove profitable: those of mental diagnosis, of education, of human engineering, and of law. It outlines some of the research that has been done using cognitive tasks in diagnostic ways. The chapter examines some of the research efforts along this line with one particular substance: marijuana. Several experiments have been designed to explore the effects of marijuana on various aspects of the information-processing system. Psychologists are only beginning to investigate the precise effects of various drugs within the framework of the human information-processing system. A simple series of experiments using cognitive tasks can provide a reasonably precise characterization of some of the ways in which marijuana affects the information-processing system.
