Information theory, a mathematical representation of the conditions and parameters affecting the transmission and processing of information. Theory is a tool that enables us to identify a problem and to plan a means for altering the situation. The theory states that communication within the organisation regulates the environment which influences the behaviour of the people and thus the productivity. Intentionality, or theory of mind, is the ability to explain and predict the behaviour of others by attributing to them intentions and mental states and is hypothesised to be one of several social cognitive mechanisms which have impacted upon brain size evolution. The use of information theory in evolutionary biology. The theory of asymmetric information was developed in the 1970s and 1980s as a plausible explanation for common phenomena that mainstream general equilibrium economics couldnt explain. The notion of entropy, which is fundamental to the whole topic of this book, is introduced here. Cognitive psychology sees the individual as a processor of information, in much the same way that a computer takes in information and follows a program to produce an output. Theorybuilding is important because it provides a framework for analysis, facilitates the efficient development of the field, and is needed for the applicability to practical real world problems. This chapter introduces some of the basic concepts of information theory, as well. Semantic conceptions of information stanford encyclopedia. Social contagion theory and information literacy dissemination.
Gabriel abend northwestern university theory is one of the most important words in the lexicon of contemporary sociology. Information definition is knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction. Information theory definition is a theory that deals statistically with information, with the measurement of its content in terms of its distinguishing essential characteristics or by the number of alternatives from which it makes a choice possible, and with the efficiency of processes of communication between humans and machines. It begins as a broad spectrum of fields, from management to biology, all believing information theory to be a magic key to multidisciplinary understanding. A concept is a symbolic representation of an actual thing.
Information theory has also had an important role in shaping theories of perception, cognition, and neural computation. Pdf is also an abbreviation for the netware printer definition file. Information theory can be viewed as simply a branch of applied probability theory. The theory is devoted to the discovery and exploration of mathematical laws that govern the behavior of data as it is transferred, stored, or retrieved. Epistemology, theory, and methodology in knowledge. Introduction although the use of the word information, with different meanings, can be. Information theory is a branch of mathematics that overlaps into communications engineering, biology, medical science, sociology, and psychology. Uses and gratifications theory asserts that people use media to gratify specific wants and needs. It was the result of crucial contributions made by many distinct individuals, from a variety of backgrounds, who took his ideas and expanded upon them. Learn more about the elements of information processing in this article. Postmodernism is a late 20thcentury movement in philosophy and literary theory that generally questions the basic assumptions of western philosophy in the modern period roughly, the 17th century through the 19th century. A discipline independent definition information previous.
Data that is 1 accurate and timely, 2 specific and organized for a purpose, 3 presented within a. Classroom applications during the past decade, cognitive psychologists have obtained an increased understanding of how humans think, reason, and learn. The dependence of information on the occurrence of syntactically wellformed data, and of data on the occurrence of differences variously implementable physically, explain why information can so easily be decoupled from its support. Information theory studies the transmission, processing, extraction, and utilization of information. The main disadvantage of shannons definition of information is that the actual contents and impact of messages were not investigated. With roughly twothird of the world economy based on services, and the rise of india, philippines, and other nations as global it players, many developing countries have accepted ict as a national mission. Abstractly, information can be thought of as the resolution of uncertainty. In information theory, the major goal is for one person a transmitter to convey some message over a channel to another person the receiver. Elements of information theory fundamentals of computational. It has been employed variously as a social, cultural, economical and technical concept, and is typically. This fundamental definition of entropy as a measure of uncertainty can.
Information theory is a mathematical approach to the study of coding of information along with the quantification, storage, and communication of information. Information and communications technology ict is viewed as both a means and an end for development. Underdetermination is an epistemological issue about the relation of evidence to conclusions. A theory is underdetermined also called indeterminacy of data to theory if a rival, inconsistent theory is at least as consistent with the evidence. Theory is defined as a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action. Examples are entropy, mutual information, conditional entropy, conditional information, and relative entropy discrimination, kullbackleibler. Information processing, the acquisition, recording, organization, retrieval, display, and dissemination of information. Oct 01, 2014 these multidisciplinary experts provide insight into these difficult questions, and although each of the panelists had a slightly different definition of resilience, most of the proposed definitions included a concept of healthy, adaptive, or integrated positive functioning over the passage of time in the aftermath of adversity. Current research supports the view that autism involves delays and deficits not only in the development of a theory of mind but also in additional aspects of socialaffective information. This definition is essentially due to shannon in 1948, in the seminal. Karl edward weick, an american organisational theorist developed this concept.
A set of assumptions, propositions, or accepted facts that attempts to provide a plausible or rational explanation of causeandeffect causal relationships among a group of observed phenomenon. Unlike many media theories that view media users as passive, uses and gratifications sees users as active agents who have control over their media consumption. And, surely enough, the definition given by shannon seems to come out of nowhere. The components of theory are concepts ideally well defined and principles.
Information processing theory discusses the mechanisms through which learning occurs. Examples are entropy, mutual information, conditional entropy, conditional information, and. Information definition, knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance. Theory allows us to explain what we see and to figure out how to bring about change. Two related, yet distinct, meanings of theory synonym discussion of theory. Social contract theory in moral and political philosophy, the social contract is a theory or model, originating during the age of enlightenment, that typically addresses the questions of the origin of society and the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Information and translations of information theory in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Most closely associated with the work of the american electrical engineer claude shannon in the mid20th century, information theory is chiefly of interest to.
Information definition of information by the free dictionary. In this chapter, we discuss preliminary definitions of information need derived from a historical and current overview of the concept in computer and information science. Information need information need is the motivation people think and feel to seek information, but it is a complex concept that divides researchers. Semantic conceptions of information stanford encyclopedia of. Theory explains how some aspect of human behavior or performance is organized. The words origin from the greek thoros, a spectator, stresses the fact that all theories are mental models of the perceived reality.
Pdf one difficulty faced by students on many information management courses is the lack of any attempt to teach concepts of information. Pdf shannons mathematical theory of communication defines. A schema is an organized unit of knowledge for a subject or event. Theory definition of theory by the free dictionary. The differential entropy of a random vector xk is hxk hpxk. Mar 17, 20 obviously, the most important concept of shannons information theory is information. To be good theory, a theory must follow the virtues. Along the way, well give some intuitive reasoning behind these values in addition to the formulas. Introduction organisational information theory is a complex theoretical framework which focuses on how an organisation adopts the information which is fundamental for them to sustain. An interdisciplinary approach to determine how decisions are made given unknown variables and an uncertain decision environment framework. Information is the source of a communication system, whether it is analog or digital. Information theory is based on probability theory and statistics. As a major part of social identity theory, which emerged.
Instances of widely studied collective behaviors throughout the last century include mob panics and violence, organization of social move. For an organisation to sustain it must afford the information needed to achieve the goals. This work is situated in a metatheoretical framework, drawn from sociological thought. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext.
Yet, their ubiquity notwithstanding, it is quite unclear what sociologists mean by the words theory, theoretical, and theorize. Our decision to begin this lecture series on modern social theory with the question what is theory. The use of information theory in evolutionary biology christoph adami1,2 3 1department of microbiology and molecular genetics, michigan state university, east lansing, michigan. Theory is to justify reimbursement to get funding and support need to explain what is being done and demonstrate that it works theory and research 3.
Information theory often concerns itself with measures of information of the distributions associated with random variables. Introduction although the use of the word information, with different meanings, can be traced back to. The actual format, medium and language in which semantic information is encoded is often irrelevant and hence. It thus enables us to make predictions about that behavior. At the very heart of cognitive psychology is the idea of information processing. Shannons theory of information, which describes information from a statistical viewpoint only, is discussed fully in the appendix chapter a1. Information theory article about information theory by. All the cards contain a computer chip which stores information, such as what type of meal has been purchased by the pupil. Information theory studies the quantification, storage, and communication of information.
The information content of one of these partial messages is a measure of how much uncertainty this resolves for the receiver. A model of information processing organization putting interrelated pieces of information into chunks meaningfulness when new material can be related to information in longterm memory visual imagery encoding generating images in your mind of objects, ideas, and actions dual coding theory. Entropy and information theory stanford ee stanford university. We shall often use the shorthand pdf for the probability density func tion pxx. The information processing approach is based on a number of assumptions, including. By definition, theory must have four basic criteria. Definition of information need information today, inc. Social categorization is the process by which people are placed into groups based on characteristics like race, gender, or ethnicity. First, there is the assumption of a limited capacity. Shannonshannon, claude elwood, 19162001, american applied mathematician, b. Modern uses of the word theory derive from the original definition, but have taken on new shades of meaning, still based on the idea of a theory as a thoughtful and rational explanation of the general nature of things. In this article we will cover some of the basic concepts in information theory and how they relate to cognitive science and neuroscience. Information theory was not just a product of the work of claude shannon.
Nursing theory is an organized framework of concepts and purposes designed to guide the practice of nursing. A theoretical model 245 march 29april 1, 2007, baltimore, maryland refers in part to the ways in which individuals gather and behave in groups. Much of this gain can be attributed to the continuing development of a theoretical framework known as the. Although we all seem to have an idea of what information is, its nearly impossible to define it clearly. Definition of information theory in the dictionary. Information definition of information by merriamwebster. Information is a fundamental entity answers in genesis. In particular, if xk has probability density function pdf p. Elements and principles of the information society 4 introduction ever since the 1980s, information society has been one of the key terms used to describe todays world. If we consider an event, there are three conditions of occurrence. Knowledge or facts learned, especially about a certain subject or event.
Schema theory is a branch of cognitive science concerned with how the brain structures knowledge. The theory is devoted to the discovery and exploration of mathematical laws that govern the behavior of data. Although the hardware is still at a very basic stage, the theory of how quantum computers process information is well advanced. While some emphasized that sociological theory or social theory is a i w hati st he or y. Depending on the theory, these limitations occur at different points in information processing, but it is widely held in all models that there are. An introduction to information theory and entropy tom carter. To do so, the transmitter sends a series possibly just one partial messages that give clues towards the original message. A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or. This is an exercise in manipulating conditional probabilities.
Market information services theory and practice v preface. In recent years, the term has often been applied to computerbased operations specifically. Information theory definition of information theory by. Indeed the diversity and directions of their perspectives and interests shaped the direction of information theory. A theory that lacks supporting evidence is generally, more properly, referred to as a hypothesis. Theory definition, a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena. The information school of the university of washington abstract this paper proposes a preliminary classification of knowledge organization research, divided among epistemology, theory, and methodology plus three spheres of research. Systems theory also enables us to understand the components and dynamics of client systems in order to interpret problems and develop balanced inter. Englishspeakers have used the word theory since at least the late 16th century.
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