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Acquisition of procedural skills from examples
1Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213.
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|November 1, 1994
Summary
With practice, individuals learn to directly map input-output pairs, speeding up performance over time. This learning process also introduced a directional asymmetry in recall speed, impacting cognitive processes.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Learning Sciences
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Learning complex mappings often involves initial reliance on explicit examples.
- With sufficient practice, cognitive processes can become more automated and direct.
- Understanding the dynamics of skill acquisition and performance improvement is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how individuals learn to generate input-output mappings through analogy.
- To examine the effects of practice on the speed and nature of these mappings.
- To determine if learning direct mappings differs from recalling original examples.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments involving memorization of input-output pairs.
- Participants generated outputs for new inputs by analogy to learned examples.
- Performance speed was measured across different practice durations (daily and multi-day).
Main Results:
- Participant performance (speed) improved as a power function of practice.
- A directional asymmetry emerged: calculating input from output became slower than output from input.
- Speed-up in direct mapping was observed, distinct from the recall of original examples.
Conclusions:
- Extended practice facilitates the transition from analogical reasoning to direct input-output mapping.
- Skill acquisition leads to performance gains but can also introduce directional biases.
- The learning of procedural skills and memory recall follow different developmental trajectories with practice.