The Role of Processing Strategies in the Acquisition and Transfer of a Cognitive Skill

How the difficulty of initial training influences the acquisition and transfer of strategic processing skills and memory for processed stimuli was examined in 3 experiments. Participants were asked to discriminate between similar or dissimilar random polygon stimuli. Participants were asked to discr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance 1999-10, Vol.25 (5), p.1390-1410
Main Authors: Doane, Stephanie M, Sohn, Young Woo, Schreiber, Brian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Ability
Discrimination Learning
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Learning
Learning Strategies
Learning. Memory
Memory
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Recall (Learning)
Recognition (Learning)
Skills
Stimulus Parameters
Task Complexity
Transfer (Learning)
Visual Discrimination
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Summary:How the difficulty of initial training influences the acquisition and transfer of strategic processing skills and memory for processed stimuli was examined in 3 experiments. Participants were asked to discriminate between similar or dissimilar random polygon stimuli. Participants were asked to discriminate between novel transfer polygons; this was followed by a recognition memory task. Results suggest that the difficulty of initial training influences strategic skill acquisition. Strategies acquired during training are applied at transfer regardless of their effectiveness for processing transfer stimuli. This is true even when participants are given feedback indicating that their processing strategy is ineffective. It is argued that skill acquisition is influenced by the acquisition of both stimulus-specific knowledge and strategic skills, and that the strategic skills acquired serve to optimize processing.
ISSN:0096-1523
1939-1277
DOI:10.1037/0096-1523.25.5.1390