Mechanisms of Simultaneous Learning.
Abstract
In various training situations it is common for the learner to be studying several different topics simultaneously. In our experimental work on simultaneous learning we restricted the tasks to the acquisition of two or more clearly distinguishable lists of words. Two questions dominated the research. The first question was concerned with negative effects that had been observed in earlier work. Subjects learned three lists in isolation for a trial before being given simultaneous learning on the three tasks. When a list was to be recalled, positive transfer from isolated to simultaneous learning was usually very high. However, when recognition memory was tested, or when memory for frequency of presentation of the words was measured, negative transfer was usually quite heavy. In the extreme case, it was as if the prior learning had no lasting influence on the memory. Our experiments sought to give a more thorough empirical characterization of these negative effects. The second question asked about trade-off effects when a subject is learning two tasks simultaneously. If subjects are asked to learn an easy task along with a difficult task, it might be expected that more learning resources would be allotted to the difficult than to the easy task. The evidence from a number of experiments indicated that any substantial inequality in the allocation of resources did not take place unless the easy task was easy because the learner had been given practice on it before it was merged with another task for simultaneous learning. Other variables, which produced rather wide differences in the difficulty of the two tasks being learned simultaneously, did not result in differential allocation of resources.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA090777
Entities
People
- Benton J. Underwood
Organizations
- Northwestern University