Cognitive sequence knowledge: What is learned?

Abstract

In 4 experiments, participants performed running-arithmetic tasks. These tasks involved a sequential ordering of individual operations and a structure of subgoals that defined how calculations fit together in purpose. Consistent transitions between adjacent steps facilitated performance only when subgoal structures were relatively simple. When subgoal structures were more complex, consistent mapping of operations to serial locations produced a slight benefit. Consistency of subgoal structure produced a substantial benefit in both speed and accuracy, and some knowledge of subgoal structure integrated with knowledge of the sequence of operations. Apparently, a task's subgoal structure imposes demands that either facilitate or obscure benefits of sequence consistencies. The benefits are attributed to increased efficiency in using working memory.

759Temporal tuning in the acquisition of cognitive skill

“…Although simple arithmetic is a well-learned skill for college students, practice likely results in both speed-up of individual operations (e.g., Rickard, Healy, & Bourne, 1994) and learning of other aspects of the running arithmetic task (e.g., Wenger & Carlson, 1996). It is possible that some of this general speedup is due to temporal fine-tuning at a fine grain of cognitive procedures not revealed by the present methodology, as suggested by Neisser (1983).…”

“…In the perceptual-motor domain, vision provides information specifying affordances available in the near future (e.g., looking ahead while walking). An interesting possible implication of these findings is that the benefits of consistent sequences of operators or subgoals in mental tasks (Carlson & Lundy, 1992;Wenger & Carlson, 1996) are mediated by temporal tuning.The ability to anticipate upcoming processes may allow for more precise juxtaposition of procedures and operands, resulting in the increased fluency observed in consistent sequence relative to varied sequence conditions. Precise juxtaposition minimizes the need for working memory management and the coordination of information from working memory and perception, which are demanding and time consuming(e.g., Carlson, 1997;Carlson, Wenger, & Sullivan, 1993).…”

“…MIN and MAX required participants to compare their current total with a new operand, retaining as the new total either the smaller (MIN) or the larger (MAX) of the current total and the new operand. This set of operations has been used successfully in several previous studies (e.g., Carlson & Lundy, 1992;Wenger & Carlson, 1996), and participants had no difficulty in understanding and applying them.…”

The Stability of Old Skills During Transfer

“…This is a view shared by Gopher et al (2000), who suggest that the ability to reduce the cost of shifting from one task to another can be overcome with advanced preparation and having the information already available in working memory. This view suggests that the task requirements can be pre-empted by allowing for the anticipation of more problems of a similar nature (see Carlson & Yaure, 1990;Wenger & Carlson, 1996). In the present study, the training conditions could have encouraged the development of a mental set, which may have involved an expectation of further problems of a similar type.…”

Memory for Processing Sequence in Cognitive Skills and its Role in Performance Errors

“…Chamess and Campbell (1988) demonstrated a form of sequence knowledge when participants practiced a multi-step algorithm for squaring 2-dieit numbers. Carlson and his colleagues have demonstrated the role of sequence knowledge in other numeric computation tasks similar to that of Elio (Carlson & Lundy, 1992;Lundy, Wenger, Schmidt, & Carlson, 1994;Wenger & Carlson, 1996) and in binarv computation sequences such as logic gates (Carlson & Shin, 1996;Carlson, Sullivan, & Schneider, 1989;Carlson & Yaure, 1990). Finally, in earlier work we demonstrated the unique role of learning sequences in a novel computation skill referred to as number reduction .…”