THE ADAPTIVELY CONTROLLED INSTRUCTION OF A TRANSFORMATION SKILL

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Abstract
A keyboard skill is described for which two different (and partly conflicting) rules of correspondence exist between the six stimulus lamps and the six response keys. At any given trial, a subset of three stimulus lamps is illuminated, and an orientation signal tells S which rule of correspondence he must apply. In the main experimental condition, the skill was instructed by an adaptive machine which (a) varied the relative frequency with which the two rules were selected, and (b) simplified certain problems by illuminating fewer lamps. In the first control condition, facility (a) was deleted. In the second control condition, facilities (a) and (b) were both deleted. The results show that the fully adaptive condition produced faster learning than the first control condition, and the latter produced faster learning than the second control condition. Some additional analysis suggests that different subjects learned the skill in different ways, and that learning is more efficient if the conflicting rules of correspondence are rehearsed in parallel (rather than sequentially).

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