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School of Psychology

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search.filters.applied.f.advisor: Catrambone, Richard × End date: 2011 × Start date: 2010 ×

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A framework for demonstrating practice schedule effects in skill acquisition

2011-11-14 , Gane, Brian Douglas

I outline a framework for researching the effects of practice schedule on skill acquisition, based upon stage theories of information processing and stage theories of skill acquisition. Skilled performance requires stimulus identification, response selection, and response execution. I hypothesize that practice schedule affects learning in two types of information processing stages: stimulus-oriented and response-oriented stages. The loci of these effects differ based on the stage. In stimulus-oriented stages, practice schedule affects concept and categorization learning via contiguity of exemplars and feature saliency. In response-oriented stages, practice schedule affects the efficiency with which individuals produce a response by affecting response preparation. I evaluated this framework and theory with 4 experiments that manipulated practice schedule and amount of practice, in 2 domains with different information processing demands. Experiments~1~and~2 focused on response-oriented stages via a task that required participants to execute a multisegment movement according to a target time. Experiments~3~and~4 focused on stimulus-oriented stages via a task that required participants to categorize football play diagrams. Within the 2 task domains the amount of acquisition practice was manipulated to test whether different durations of acquisition training changed how practice schedules affected retention and transfer performance. The practice schedule manipulation had reliable effects on performance and learning when task performance involved either response preparation or induction of categorization rules. Practice schedule did not affect performance or learning when task performance involved categorization decisions, after the rules had been learned. Additionally, I report a novel method for quantifying amount of practice that allows comparisons across task domains.

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The role of principles in instructions for procedural tasks: timing of use, method of study, and procedural instruction specificity

2011-11-11 , Eiriksdottir, Elsa

Including domain rules and generalities (principles) in instructions for procedural tasks is believed to help learners understand the task domain (or the system), and in turn make them better able to complete tasks. However, equivocal results of prior research indicate that principles are not always beneficial. The goal of the current research was to delineate the characteristics of the conditions under which principles are useful. In two studies I investigated the impact of the timing of principle use, the method used to study the principles, and the specificity of the procedural instructions accompanying the principles. The first study showed that the timing of principle use (studying the principles before, during, or after completing training tasks) did not affect declarative (knowledge of the system) or procedural learning (troubleshooting task performance). Therefore, the commonly advocated idea that principles should be provided before task engagement was not supported. Neither was the hypothesis that using principles while solving tasks would enhance procedural learning. When learners summarized the principles, they demonstrated better declarative learning compared to when they just read the principles. Better declarative learning was associated with better procedural learning, but the relationship between understanding and using a system is likely not as direct as often assumed. In the second study declarative and procedural learning were enhanced when the principles were accompanied by general rather than detailed procedural instructions. General procedural instructions appeared to encourage task engagement and the effective use of principles although this effect was reduced if leaners were required to summarize the principles rather than simply read them. Together the results of the two studies reveal how the learning situation and instructional materials can be constructed to create conditions where principles enhance learning and subsequent performance.

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A framework of passive-active-constructive study techniques: a divergence between assigned and reported behaviors

2010-09-16 , Bujak, Keith R.

An educational framework proposed by Chi (2009) aims to link overt study activities with outcomes via the underlying cognitive processes experienced by learners. Activities are classified along a continuum of passive, active, and constructive . Overt activities--¬such as reading, highlighting, and self-explaining--are grouped according to the hypothesized cognitive processes they engage. The framework posits that constructive activities yield the best learning, passive yield the poorest, and active is somewhere in between. Although these hypotheses are not supported by this experiment, there is evidence to suggest that college students employ study techniques that go beyond what they are asked to do. Also, the content of the text to be studied is potentially an important factor for determining the type of studying learners do regardless of what they are asked to do. In sum, although the framework is supported by many other studies, there might be additional variables that need to be considered when implementing this framework.

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