MEMORY FOR ORDER OF OPERATIONS IN THE ACQUISITION AND TRANSFER OF SEQUENTIAL COGNITIVE SKILLS

The authors report a series of experiments in which questions about th e nature of memory for the order of processing operations in sequentia l processing skills (i.e., skills that require proper sequencing of a set of component operations) were addressed. Evidence from 3 studies o f a sequential number computation skill suggested that memory for proc essing sequences that are general to many instances is more instrument al than sequence memory that is instance specific. Results generalized over task versions that differed markedly in the number of processing sequences and the number of unique stimulus instances per sequence. G eneral sequence memory appeared to develop relatively early in practic e and to underlie errors in transfer that resembled einstellung effect s. The findings are discussed with respect to memory mechanisms postul ated in recent theories of skill acquisition.