The PASS (Planning, Arousal-Attention, Simultaneous, Successive) cognitive processing model can be described as a modern theory.
It is concerned with information processing that is dynamic as opposed to static. It is based on Luria’s analyses of brain structures (Luria, 1966b, 1973). Luria was a Russian neuropsychologist and medical doctor who examined many patients suffering from brain damage. He worked for 50 years in this field and died in 1977.
Luria described human cognitive processes within the framework of three functional units. The function of the first unit is cortical arousal and attention; the second unit codes information using simultaneous and successive processes; the third unit provides for planning, self-monitoring, and structuring of cognitive activities. Luria’s work on the functional aspects of brain structures formed the basis of the PASS model.
The PASS theory, provides a model for conceptualizing human intellectual competence. The rationale for test construction is derived from the theory. We get information or input through our eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue, and internal organs. When the sensory information is sent for analysis, the central processes become active. There are four components that make up the central processing mechanisms and together they make up PASS:
1. Planning (P)
2. Arousal-Attention (A)
3. Simultaneous Processing (S)
4. Successive Processing (S)
An important addition is knowledge-base. This is made up of past experiences and learning, and of emotions and motivations that provide the background for information to be processed. The four processes must be active in the context of an individual’s knowledge-base. It is as if PASS processes are floating on a sea of knowledge; without the water they cannot operate and will sink.
For example, if a child does not know the letters of the alphabet he cannot process the letters serially and read a word like going. If the child does not understand the words, he cannot process the meaning of a sentence by putting the ideas together simultaneously, as in “My dog bit my cat.” He will not be able to answer the question, “Who was hurt?” (Answer—my cat).
The four major processes are associated with different parts of the brain. Planning is broadly located in the front part of our brains, the frontal lobe. We give a special place to planning in our mental activities. Planning processes will be required when the individual makes decisions about how to solve a problem or carry out an activity, how to write an essay about the last summer vacation, or what to say to a friend who has lost his father.
Planning is also needed to focus our attention and to decide how and when to use simultaneous and successive processes. For example, writing a composition or a story involves the generation of a plan, the organization of ideas, control over what is presented when, examination of the product, and revisions to ensure a good final product.
Arousal-Attention is more difficult to locate. Arousal is a simple process that keeps us awake and alert and is associated with the activities in the brain stem and the lower part of the cerebral cortex. Attention is more complex and just as we can get alerted by things that interest us, we can fall asleep during a boring lecture or conversation. What part of the brain decides whether or not something that we are experiencing is interesting? Perhaps the frontal lobe and the lower parts of the cortex together do this.
Simultaneous Processing and Successive Processing are located in the back part of the brain. Simultaneous processing is broadly asso-ciated with the occipital and the parietal lobes whereas successive processing is associated with the frontotemporal lobe.
The last component of the PASS model is Output or action and behavior. If you ask a child to memorize, word by word, the definition of democracy from his text book in social studies, he must use a strictly successive process. But if you ask him to describe what democracy is all about, he could use simultaneous processing, putting the main ideas about democracy together and telling you the answer. A child who fails in the first task may be successful in the second. Therefore, just by changing the nature of the answer (output), we can change the processing required to arrive at that answer.
Some people who have lost their memory as a result of a brain disease can nevertheless recall it with a little prompting. Therefore, how we measure output becomes important in measuring intelligence. The PASS theory of intelligence has given us:
• Tests to measure intelligence as a set of cognitive processes;
• Discussion about what the major processes are;
• Guidance for remediation of the processing difficulties that an individual might have.
Collaboratively, they introduce advantages over old measures of IQ.