Mechanisms of skill acquisition and the law of practice
Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Practice, and the performance improvement that it engenders, has long been a major topic in psychology.In this paper, both experimental and theoretical approaches are employed in an investigation of the mechanisms underlying this improvement.On the experimental side, it is argued that a single law, the power law of practice, adequately describes all of the practice data.On the theoretical side, a model of practice rooted in modern cognitive psychology, the chunking theory of learning, is formulated.The paper consists of (1) the presentation of a set of empirical practice curves; (2) mathematical investigations into the nature of power law functions; (3) evaluations of die ability of three different classes of functions to adequately model the empirical curves; (4) a discussion of the existing models of practice; (5) a presentation of the chunking theory of learning.
DOI: 10.1184/r1/6607196
Authors: Newell, Allen, Rosenbloom, Paul S.
Language: English
Topic: Motor Control and Adaptation
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Award: G8876996369
OpenAlex ID: W2786157445