With the invention of computer in the first half of the 20th century, scientists realized how brains and computers work similarly to process given information. This theory helped pave the way for modern day fields such as cybernetics, and computational neuroscience. However, the brain was being treated a little too much like a computer, but as scientists advanced in their technology and knowledge, over the years the study of the brain and how it obtains information has become a more real theoretical concept. Like the computer, the brains performance seems to diminish when damaged, it can learn from experience, and can process complex information quickly (not as quick as a computer). Similar to a computer, the brain gets information inputted into sensory organs and that is transformed by the algorithm of the brain which leads to an eventual outcome/action.
Information Processing attempts to understand how information is received and dealt with by the brain. An important mark in information processing came in 1959 with the publishing of
References: http://www.willamette.edu/~gorr/classes/cs449/brain.html http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/methods/info_processing/