Relational and intraitem processing in the acquisition and retention of a cognitive skill PDF
Preview Relational and intraitem processing in the acquisition and retention of a cognitive skill
RELATIONALANDINTRAITEMPROCESSINGINTHE ACQUISITIONANDRETENTIONOFACOGNITIVESKILL NANCYH.LINCOLN ADISSERTATIONPRESENTEDTOTHEGRADUATESCHOOL OFTHEUNIVERSITYOFFLORIDAINPARTIALFULFILLMENT OFTHEREQUIREMENTSFORTHEDEGREEOF DOCTOROFPHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDA 2001 TABLEOFCONTENTS page DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v ABSTRACT vi INTRODUCTION 1 DistributionofPractice 4 SpacingEffectTheories 7 ContextualInterference 9 EarlyTheories 10 RelationalProcessingTheory 12 IntraitemProcessingTheory 13 DomainsofContextualInterference 14 Motorlearning 15 Verballearning 16 Cognitiveskills 17 ThePresentInvestigation 18 EXPERIMENTONE 22 Method 25 Participants 25 MaterialsandApparatus 25 Design 26 Procedure 26 Acquisition 26 Retention 28 ResultsandDiscussion 28 Acquisition 29 Retention 31 Figures 37 EXPERIMENTTWO 41 Method 42 Participants 42 ii MaterialsandApparatus 43 Design 43 Procedure 43 ResultsandDiscussion 44 Acquisition 44 Retention 46 RelationalProcessing 48 Acquisition 48 Retention 50 Figures 55 EXPERIMENTTHREE 61 Method 66 Participants 66 MaterialsandApparatus 67 Design 67 Procedure 67 ResultsandDiscussion 68 Acquisition 68 Retention 70 Figures 77 GENERALDISCUSSION 82 APPENDIXA SYMBOLSANDRULESFOR EXPERIMENT1 93 APPENDIXB SYMBOLSANDRULESFOR EXPERIMENT2 94 APPENDIXC PREDICTEDANDACTUAL FUNCTIONSFOREXPERIMENT3 95 REFERENCES 96 BIOGRAPHICALSKETCH 101 DEDICATION Thisdissertationisdedicatedtomyfather,A.K."Abe"Lincoln,whowastaken prematurelyfromthisworldinSeptember2000.1thankhimforhisencouragementand supportthroughoutmyacademicyears.HealwaysteasedthatIwouldbeaneternal student,butnowIcananswer,"Yes,Iamfinallydone!" IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IwouldliketothankthemembersofmyDoctoralCommitteefortheirsupport andguidanceduringthequalifyingprocess,andthroughthedevelopmentandcompletion ofthisdissertation.TheseincludeDr.IraFischler,committeechair;Drs.C.Michael Levy,RobertSorkinandShariEllisoftheDepartmentofPsychology;andDr.Tracy LinderholmoftheDepartmentofEducationalPsychology,whosetimelyadditiontothe committeewasmostappreciated.Iwouldalsoliketothankmymomforallofher encouragementandlovethroughoutmyscholasticyears.Iknowthatsheisveryprooud ofme,andIamproudtocallhernotonlymymom,butmyfriend. v AbstractofDissertationPresentedtotheGraduateSchool oftheUniversityofFloridainPartialFulfillmentofthe RequirementsfortheDegreeofDoctorofPhilosophy RELATIONALANDINTRAITEMPROCESSINGINTHE ACQUISITIONANDRETENTIONOFACOGNITIVESKILL By NancyH.Lincoln December,2001 Chair:IraFischler,Ph.D. MajorDepartment:Psychology Thecontextualinterferenceeffectoccurswhenrandomly-variedpracticeonaset ofitemsresultsinpoorerperformancethandoespracticeblockedbyitemsduring acquisition,butbettersubsequentlong-termretentionoftheinformationthathasbeen learned.Threeexperimentswereconductedtoseeifcontextualinterferenceeffectswere tobefoundinanovel,complexcognitiveskillinvolvingunfamiliarsymbolsand computationalrules,andtoevaluateseveralproposedexplanationsoftheeffect. Intraitemprocessingtheoriesfocusonthereconstructionofto-be-learneditemsfrom memoryduringacquisition,whereasinteritemorrelationalprocessingtheoriesfocuson contrastsandcomparisonsbetweenitemsduringlearning.Participantslearnedsetsof uniqueorrelatedKanjicharactersmappedontosequentialmathematicalrulesinvarious practiceschedules(random,blocked,blockedwithaninterveningtask,andsemi-random) andwerethengivenaretentiontest48hourslater.Astrongcontextualinterferenceeffect wasfoundinallthreeexperiments,extendingthecurrentliteraturetothehigher-level vi learningofcognitiveskills.Marginaleffectsofrelationalprocessingwerefound.The claimthatablocked-plus-intervening-taskschedulecouldreplicatethedemandsand workloadofarandomschedulewasnotsupported.Differencesamongstgroupsthat learnedtherulesoneatatime,oringroupsoftwo,three,orsix,arediscussedintermsof intraitemmechanismsofdisplacement,andofvaryinglevelsofproactiveinterference, duringacquisition.Theoreticalexplanationsareadoptedfromtheliteratureonthe distributionofpractice(e.g.,deficient-processingtheories)tounderstandunderlying processesofrandomandblockedpracticeschedules.Itisspeculatedthatrelational factorsmayplaymoreofaroleinlearninglargebodiesoforganizedfactsorprocedures. vii INTRODUCTION Inthisdissertation,threeexperimentsaredescribedthatexplorehowvariationsin thesequenceanddistributionofpracticeduringacquisitionofasetofunfamiliar mathematicalrulesaffectssubsequentretentionofthoserules.Explanationsforthese effectsthatfocusonrelationsamongtherules,ontheonehand(relationalprocessing), andonthequalityofencodingindividualrules(intraitemprocessing),ontheother,are contrasted. Itiscommonlythoughtthatperformanceduringorimmediatelyaftertraining(or acquisition)isavalidindicatoroftheamountoflearningthathadtakenplaceduringthat training.Thisconceptisimplicitinmanyappliedtrainingprogramsinusetoday;with skillsbeingtaughtandpracticedinwaysthatseektomaximizeperformanceduring acquisition.However,researchonthedetailsofeventsduringpractice,suchasthe distributionofpracticeovertimeandthesequencingofspecificconditionsofpractice, suggestthatthegoalsofmaximizinglong-termretentionandgeneralizabilityofskills maybebestmetwithpracticeconditionsthatactuallyproducelessthanideal performanceduringlearningortraining. Thissomewhatcounterintuitiveclaimisofpracticalaswellastheoretical importance.Informaltrainingsituations,itisoftenthecasethattraineesareexposedtoa substantialamountofinformationinashortperiodoftime,andtestedontheir “retention”oftheskillsandknowledgetheyhavejustlearnedimmediatelyaftertraining hasceased.Thiscontraststomanyeverydaysituationsinwhichaskillisacquired 2 informally;here,peopleoftenreceivepracticeinarandom,intermittentandvariable fashion,andmaynothavetheopportunitytouselearnedskillsforquitesometimeafter acquisition.Forexample,intheircross-sectionalstudyoftheretentionofSpanishlearned inhighschool,BahrickandPhelps(1987)foundthatmostoftheirseveralhundred participantsdidnotpracticeorrehearseanyoftheirSpanishknowledgeintheyearsthat followedtheirinitialtraining.Thismaybetrueevenforskillsandknowledgethatare relevanttotheongoingprofessionalactivitiesofthelearner.Forexample,themedical practitionermaynotencounteraparticularsetofdiagnosticsymptomsuntilyearsafter studyingitasamedicalstudent.Forthesereasons,itseemsecologicallyimportantto studyretentionoverlongerperiodsoftimethanistypicallydoneinthelearning laboratory,wherethepracticehasbeentoassessretentionofaskillshortlyafter acquisition,oratmostseveralhourslater. Earlylearningtheoristsmadementionofconditionsthatappearedtoretard acquisition,butenhancelong-termretention(e.g.,Estes,1955;Hull,1942),perhaps becauseinthattradition,onlyeffectsthathadsomepermanenceacrosslongperiodsof timewouldbeclassifiedas“learning”(Schmidt&Bjork,1992).Inthebehavioral literature,learninghasbeenviewedashavingthreemaincomponents:behavioralchange, practiceorexperience,andpermanency(Hilgard&Bower,1975).Astheinformation- processingapproachtocognitionbecamemorewidespread,cognitivepsychologists begantoviewlearninglessasapassivestrengtheningofabehaviorandmoreasanactive andconstructiveprocess(Atkinson&Shiffrin,1968;Neisser,1967).Mentalactivities andcognitiveprocessing,suchaspatternrecognition,imageryandattention,were incorporatedintothedefinition.Neisser’s(1967)classicdefinitionoflearninginvolves processesbywhichtheinputfromthevarioussensesis“transformed,reduced. 3 elaborated,stored,recovered,andused”(p.5).Forthebehaviorists,then,achangein behaviorrepresentedlearning;whileforthecognitivepsychologist,thechangewasinthe knowledgestructuresorcognitiveprocesses(whichultimatelycouldleadtothebehavior change).Fromeitherperspective,sometypeofpermanencyiscrucialtothedefinitionof learning.Thedistinctionbetweentemporaryandrelativelypermanenteffectsof manipulationsduringlearningisnowbeinginvestigatedonceagaininvariousstudieson thevariabilityofpracticeduringacquisition. Ofcourse,anoverallpositiverelationistobeexpectedbetweenamountof learningandsubsequentretention.PastresearchbyBahrick(1984,1979;seealso Conway,CohenandStanhope,1991),forexample,showedthatachievementattheend oftraining(asassessedbyfinalexamgrades)wasastrongpredictorofthedegreeofvery long-termretentionofacademicknowledgeandskills.Theclassicacquisitionfunction firstdescribedbyEbbinghaus(1885/1913)clearlyshowsthissystematicrelationship betweenamountofpracticeandsubsequentmemory,inthiscaseforlistsofnonsense syllables(Ebbinghaus’retentionintervalwastypically24hours). Butwhileperformanceattheendoftheacquisitionperiodmaypredictthe generallevelofretentionseveralyearslater,thewayinwhichthematerialwaslearned canalsohaveasubstantialeffectonlong-termretention.Iwillreviewtwocloselyrelated aspectsofhowtheschedulingofpracticeeventscansuppressorretardperformance duringacquisition,butboost,sometimessubstantially,long-termretentionoftheskill: spacingratherthan“massing”practice(thedistributionofpracticeeffect);and randomizingratherthanblockingpresentationofspecificgroupsorcategoriesofevents duringpractice(thecontextualinterferenceeffect).
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