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Updated: Jun 24, 2025

Problem-Solving Before Instruction PS-I: A Protocol for Assessment and Intervention in Students with Different Abilities
Published on: September 11, 2021
The Curve of Learning With and Without Instructions
Leendert van Maanen1, Yuyao Zhang1, Maarten De Schryver2
1Utrecht University, NL.
Abstract:
In skill acquisition, instructing individuals the stimulus-response mappings indicating how to perform and act, yields better performance. Additionally, performance is helped by repeated practice. Whether providing instructions and repeated practice interact to achieve optimal performance remains debated. This paper addresses that question by analyzing the learning curves of individuals learning stimulus-response mappings of varying complexity. We particularly focus on the question whether instructions lead to improved performance in the longer run. Via evidence accumulation modeling, we find no evidence for this assertion. Instructions seem to provide individuals with a head start, leading to better initial performance in the early stages of learning, without long-lasting effects on behavior. We discuss the results in light of related studies that do report long-lasting effects of instructions, and propose that the complexity of a skill determines whether long-lasting benefits of initial instructions exist.
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