Insight without Awareness: On the Interaction of Verbalization, Instruction and Practice in a Simulated Process Control Task

Abstract

Four experiments in which subjects learned to control two versions of a complex simulated process control task show that verbalizable knowledge of procedures used to perform these tasks is very limited and is acquired late in learning. Individual learning curves associated with these tasks showed sudden improvements in performance, which were not accompanied by a similar increase in verbalizable knowledge. It was also found that verbal instructions consisting of exemplar memorization, strategies for rule induction, simple heuristics, and experts’ instructions were all effective in enhancing novice subjects’ performance. A theoretical framework is proposed in which subjects draw on two separate but interacting knowledge structures to perform these tasks. One knowledge structure is based on memory for past experiences (close analogies), and the other is based on one's current mental model of the task. Implicit sets of competing rules that control response selection are derived from both sources of knowledge. It is suggested that dissociations between task performance and verbalizing occur because memory-based processing tends to have more control over response selection because of its greater specificity, whereas a mental model tends to be the preferred mode for verbal reporting because of its greater accessibility.

Positive transfer and negative transfer/antilearning of problem-solving skills.

“…Consistent with this, studies contrasting observation-based and proceduralbased learning show that, on indirect and direct measures, performance was poorer for observation-based learners (Berry, 1991;Lee, 1995). The strong implications are that action has an advantage over observation, because CDCTs are proceduralized tasks in which learning is incidental and results from direct interactions with the system (Berry, 1991;Berry & Broadbent, 1988;Stanley, Mathews, Buss, & Kotler-Cope, 1989;Sun, Merrill, & Peterson, 2001). …”

“…Dissociations are typically found where learning is SG-based (e.g., Berry, 1991;Berry & Broadbent, 1984Broadbent et al, 1986;Dienes & Fahey, 1995, 1998Marescaux et al, 1989;Stanley et al, 1989). A well established research history of CDCTs shows that SG learning leads to an impoverished understanding of control tasks, because only states of the system that advance the problem solver to the SG are explored.…”

Incubation, insight, and creative problem solving: A unified theory and a connectionist model.

“…Reber (1989) pointed out that "although it is misleading to argue that implicitly acquired knowledge is completely unconscious, it is not misleading to argue that implicitly acquired epistemic contents of mind are always richer and more sophisticated than what can be explicated" (p. 229). Voluminous experimental data testifying to this distinction can be found in Berry and Broadbent (1988) ;Cleeremans, Destrebecqz, and Boyer (1998); Dienes and Berry (1997); Karmiloff-Smith (1992); Mathews et al (1989); Reber (1989); Seger (1994); Stanley, Mathews, Buss, and Kotler-Cope (1989);andSun et al (2001, 2005).…”

Seeing is as Good as Doing

“…This is because the learning systems understood to support declarative and procedural knowledge are distinct. In support of this, people have been shown to successfully control a CDC-task independently of any reportable declarative knowledge of the rule or causal structure that determines its operation, and without self-insight as to how they are able to perform it (Berry & Broadbent, 1984, 1988Stanley et al, 1989). Another compelling demonstration of dissociations between rule-and instance-based knowledge is found in the contrasting effects of observation-based and procedural-based learning (Berry, 1991;Lee, 1995).…”

“…Implicit theorists (Berry, 1991;Berry & Broadbent, 1984, 1988Dienes & Berry, 1997;Lee, 1995;Stanley, Mathews, Buss, & Kotler-Cope, 1989) claim that the learning process involved in dynamic task environments is procedural. The knowledge that is acquired is "knowing how" to perform actions that are tied to specifi c goals.…”