Practice schedules and the use of component skills in problem solving.

Abstract

In motor and verbal learning, random practice schedules produce poorer acquisition performance but superior retention relative to blocked practice. We extend this contextual interference effect to the case of learning cognitive procedural skills to be used in problem solving. Subjects in three experiments practiced calculation with Boolean functions. After this acquisition phase, subjects solved problems requiring these procedures. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated superior transfer to problem solving for skills acquired under random schedules. In Experiment 3, subjects practiced component skills in a blocked schedule, with one of four tasks-same-different judgment, mental arithmetic, short-term memory, or long-term memory-intervening between trials. For same-different judgments and mental arithmetic, transfer performance was comparable to that found for random schedules in Experiments 1 and 2. This result suggests that the differences depend on processing rather than storage demands of intertrial activity. Implications for theories of problem solving and part-whole transfer are discussed.

The effects of practice schedule on learning a complex judgment task

“…This technique has mainly been studied in motor tasks (Brady, 1998;Cross, Schmitt, & Grafton, 2007;Guadagnoli & Lee, 2004;Lee & Magill, 1983;Magill & Hall, 1990;Shea & Morgan, 1979;Simon, 2007). However similar findings have been obtained with, for example, procedural tasks (Carlson, 1989;Carlson, Sullivan, & Schneider, 1989;Carlson & Yaure, 1990), cognitive operational tasks, such as interacting with automatic teller machines (Jamieson & Rogers, 2000), language learning (Jacoby, 1978), foreign vocabulary learning (Schneider, Healy, & Bourne, 1998, learning logical rules (Schneider, Healy, Ericsson, & Bourne, 1995), learning problem-solving from worked examples (Paas & Van Merriënboer, 1994), and troubleshooting tasks (De Croock, Van Merriënboer, & Paas, 1998).…”

If Practice Makes Perfect, What Does Less Practice Make?

“…Previous research has shown that when more time is spent exercising new cognitive skills, performance is improved and the cognitive load is reduced (e.g., Ackerman, 1988;Anderson, 1987;Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977). Other research has demonstrated that when the number (or variety) of example problems is small, learning tends to be rapid, but transfer tends to be weak (e.g., Carlson & Yaure, 1990;Gick & Holyoak, 1987). The purpose of this paper was to test these ideas in a controlled setting using an ITS that was manipulated to yield two contrasting leaming environments: "extended" (12 problems per problem set) and "constrained" (3 problems per problem set).…”

“…In addition, when the number (or variety) of example problems is small, learning tends to be rapid, but transfer tends to be weak (e.g., Carlson & Yaure, 1990;Gick & Holyoak, 1987).…”

Superiority of variable to repeated practice in transfer on anagram solution

“…Previous studies have shown that practicing tasks in a random order is also important in some cognitive learning tasks (Carlson & Yaure, 1990;Hiew, 1977;Lauer, Streby, & Battig, 1976).…”