Mechanisms of knowledge degradation in a resource management task ¶

Abstract

Previous research has focused more on learning relative to forgetting despite both being generally recognized as important human performance issues. This research pursued an improved understanding of variables that impact the effectiveness with which humans can retrieve procedural knowledge, such as mathematics or programming. Two studies reviewed yielded varying results in experiments that investigated factors that can inhibit the retrieval of procedural knowledge from memory. To explore theoretical explanations for the opposing results, 32 human participants performed a resource management task in the multi-attribute task battery (MATB) manipulating task strategy and colour symbology. Human performance resulted in significant interference effects for a switch in strategy, but not with a change in the implicit meaning of colours. Therefore, the participants’ sensitivity to the implicit meaning of visual stimuli was not as significant as a more comprehensive change in rule structure associated with procedural knowledge. This work was performed while the first and second authors were at Wright State University.