Abstract

Humans can learn simple new tasks very quickly. This ability suggests that people can reuse previously learned procedural knowledge when it applies to a new context. We have proposed a modeling approach based on this idea and used it to create a model of the attentional blink (AB). The main idea of the skill-based approach is that models are not created from scratch but, instead, built up from reusable pieces of procedural knowledge (skills). This approach not only provides an explanation for the fast learning of simple tasks but also shows much promise to improve certain aspects of cognitive modeling (e.g., robustness and generalizability). We performed two experiments, in order to collect empirical support for the model's prediction that the AB will disappear when the two targets are consolidated as a single chunk. Firstly, we performed an unsuccessful replication of a study reporting that the AB disappears when participants are instructed to remember the targets as a syllable. However, a subsequent experiment using easily combinable stimuli supported the model's prediction and showed a strongly reduced AB in a large group of participants. This result suggests that it is possible to avoid the AB with the right consolidation strategy. The skill-based approach allowed relating this finding to a general cognitive process, thereby demonstrating that incorporating this approach can be very helpful to generalize the findings of cognitive models, which otherwise tends to be rather difficult.

Highlights

  • People rarely encounter a task that shares no similarities with tasks that have been done before

  • The skill-based approach is a theory that explains the fast learning people are capable of when presented with a simple new task

  • The data from our ‘syllable’ condition differs strongly from the original data and does not show the strong attentional blink (AB) reduction reported in the original study

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Summary

Introduction

People rarely encounter a task that shares no similarities with tasks that have been done before. In a previous paper [3] we created a cognitive model of the attentional blink (AB) based on this idea This model was able to capture the most important aspects of the data reported in this paradigm and achieved this result using a novel and more human like modeling approach. The skill-based approach is a theory that explains the fast learning people are capable of when presented with a simple new task This finding is hard to explain with cognitive models because they either require a long training session or a large amount of task-specific procedural knowledge specified by the modeler. It provides an opportunity to test the flexibility of the models created by the skill-based approach, because the task demands of the second experiment are slightly different compared to the original AB task, requiring small adjustments to the model. We did not carry out an exact replication of the experiment reported in the original paper, the results should be comparable since the crucial manipulation was identical in both studies

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