Black box

Black box refers to a device, system or object when it is viewed primarily in terms of its input, output and transfer characteristics without any knowledge of its internal workings. The term black box is used because the actual program being executed is not visible to the user.

Overview

The concept of a black box is important in fields such as science, engineering, psychology, and computer science. In these fields, a black box is a device, system or object which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer function), without any knowledge of its internal workings.

In Science and Engineering

In science and engineering, a black box is a device, system or object which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs, without any knowledge of its internal workings. This is done to abstract away the complexities of the internal workings and focus on the relationship between the input and output.

In Psychology

In psychology, the term black box is used to denote the cognitive processes that occur in the mind, but are not directly observable. This concept is used in behaviorism, where the focus is on the observable behavior and not the unobservable mental processes.

In Computer Science

In computer science, a black box refers to a piece of software or hardware whose internal workings are not known or understood by the user, but whose functionality can be used. This is often the case with proprietary software, where the source code is not available to the public.

See Also

• Black box theory
• Black box testing
• Black box model