In the Mind's Eye Enhancing Human Performance (1991) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Pages 23-56
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 23... ...
3Optimizing Long-Term Retention and Transfer This chapter considers training conditions that do or do not facilitate posttraining performance. We focus on two aspects of posttraining performance: its durability (long-term retention)
|
From page 24... ...
literature deriving from basic and applied research in education, psychology, cognitive science, physical education, and sports psychology is enormous: thus, the references we cite should be viewed as representative, not exhaustive. Procedural knowledge is now commonly distinguished from declarative knowledge (Winograd, 1975)
|
From page 25... ...
enhance performance during training may or may not enhance long-term retention and transfer to altered contexts; conversely, procedures that introduce difficulties for the learner and impair performance during training may foster durable and flexible posttraining skills (for some examples, see Schmidt and Bjork, 1992)
|
From page 26... ...
posttraining context will never match exactly the training context -- if for no other reason than that the physical, emotional, and mental state of the learner will not be exactly the same -- a test of retention can be viewed as a test of the transfer of training to contexts that appear to match the training context. In attempting to make our review compatible with the literature, in which the learning-performance distinction is often blurred or forgotten by researchers, we often need to speak of the level of "learning" achieved during training when level of performance would be the more correct expression.
|
From page 27... ...
In either case, more practice would be needed to achieve the more difficult criterion, but the additional practice would produce a higher level of original learning, which, in turn, should lead to greater retention. Setting the Criterion of Mastery Determining the appropriate level of original learning of a task that trainees must acquire in order to ensure the desired level of retention is not easy.
|
From page 28... ...
automatic process is not subject to conscious control and, thus, can be executed in response to relevant external stimuli to which little attention is paid. Whether or not a skill is classified as automatic or controlled depends largely on the level of original learning.
|
From page 29... ...
1982; Slamecka and McElree, 1983)
|
From page 30... ...
or cohesiveness of the task that is a principal determinant of the level of original learning that is achieved and the amount that is retained in the long term (e.g., Hagman and Rose, 1983; Hurlock and Montague, 1982; Prophet, 1976; Schendel et al., 1978)
|
From page 31... ...
something of a puzzle (see Bjork, 1979; Dempster, 1990)
|
From page 32... ...
1982; Kieras, 1981; Sturges et al., 1981)
|
From page 33... ...
Qualitative explanations, whether direct or analogical, can enhance retention by functioning as an instructional strategy to help a learner establish a meaningful relationship between new information and what is already known and understood. Evidence supporting this approach is provided by Mayer (1975)
|
From page 34... ...
fact, the performance of both the givers and receivers of such student instruction appears to profit from the interaction, and the attitudes of students about the instructional process become more positive as well. In sum, cooperative learning techniques, peer-teaching techniques, and all other such programs in which students take an active role in their own learning lead to improved performance (see, e.g., Rothkopf, 1981)
|
From page 35... ...
the forgetting that would otherwise take place. Landauer and Ainslie (1975)
|
From page 36... ...
high enough level to ensure errorless performance in the first real-world execution, then a more intensive refresher program is recommended. Being able to predict how much forgetting is likely to occur over any given posttraining retention interval is important for determining the refresher training, practice, or rehearsal conditions needed for maintaining performance at an acceptable level.
|
From page 37... ...
and Steinberg, 1981; Young, 1983)
|
From page 38... ...
It seems important to know the specific relationships between level of original learning, task similarity, and positive transfer, but we found no recent studies that examined the transfer of cognitive or motor tasks as a function of the amount of learning. Several studies of complex problem solving, however, suggest that performance improves with practice of the rules defining the task (e.g., Anzai and Simon, 1979; Kotovsky et al., 1985)
|
From page 39... ...
(Holyoak, 1985)
|
From page 40... ...
of the objective structural similarity. The greater the perceived similarity of the situations, the greater the amount of transfer.
|
From page 41... ...
produced poorer performance than blocked practice in training, but it produced superior performance in the posttraining context. This finding has been supported by other studies of adult learners (see Magill and Hall, 1990, for a review)
|
From page 42... ...
suited to the specific task demands. Thus, item similarity in original learning of a task should produce better retention or transfer when the task is the same in posttraining as it was in original training.
|
From page 43... ...
overlearning. This retention and transfer outcome suggests that training under high contextual interference may be conceptualized as being functionally equivalent to training with additional practice (Farr, 1987)
|
From page 44... ...
with category membership. However, optimal positive transfer depends on the representativeness or variability of the examples provided with respect to the category (Anderson et al., 1979)
|
From page 45... ...
program. Kicking a soccer ball a certain distance at a given speed is produced by specifying parameters (e.g., overall duration or force of the response)
|
From page 46... ...
feeling from executing a golf swing; visual feedback comes from the outcome of an activity, as in the flight path of a golf ball. Augmented feedback, which is the focus of this section, is information performers would not ordinarily receive as a result of their actions.
|
From page 47... ...
needed to produce proficient posttraining performance in retention or transfer either does not occur or occurs only at a weak level. This dependency on frequent augmented feedback could be the result of the trainees' not using informationprocessing strategies that would ordinarily be used to learn the task in training if feedback were available less often.
|
From page 48... ...
differ in their surface characteristics from the training contexts or tasks. Depending on the relative priorities given to those two dimensions of posttraining performance, the optimal package of training components will differ somewhat.
|
From page 49... ...
Transfer of Training In general, the similarity of goals and cognitive processing between training and transfer tasks is a critical factor in enhancing transfer. A learner, therefore, should be challenged by means of manipulation of practice variables, such as feedback, contextual interference, and number and variability of examples.
|
From page 50... ...
phenomena.
|
From page 51... ...
Fried, L.S., and K.J. Holyoak 1984 Induction of category distributions: a framework for classification learning.
|
From page 52... ...
Jones, M.B. 1985 Nonimposed Overpractice and Skill Retention.
|
From page 53... ...
Mayer, R.E. 1975 Different problem-solving competencies established in learning computer programming with and without meaningful models.
|
From page 54... ...
Rea, C.P., and V Modigliani 1985 The effect of expanded versus massed practice on the retention of multiplication facts and spelling lists.
|
From page 55... ...
pothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 15:352-359.
|
From page 56... ...
rial. NPRDC Technical report no.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.