Mediation and Automatization.
Abstract
This paper discusses the relationship between the mediation of task performance by some structure that is not inherent in the task domain itself and the phenomenon of automatization in which skilled performance becomes effortless or phenomenologically automatic after extensive practice. The use of a common simple explicit mediating device, a checklist, is described in detail. It is assumed that all skilled performances are initially mediated by some structure, either internal or external, and that the terms in the mediating structure provide constraints that can be used to evaluate for its appropriateness. A parallel distributed processing view of cognition would lead us to expect as a consequence of repeated mediated task performance that a learning network will learn the sequence of states that constitute the task, and with sufficient practice may be able to move through them without the application of the constraints provided by the mediating structure. It is argues that this condition of no-longer-mediated performance is precisely what has been seen as automatized performances and that the changes that obviate the need for mediation are the processes underlying the development of skill automatization.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1987
- Accession Number
- ADA182557
Entities
People
- Edwin Hutchins
Organizations
- University of California, San Diego