SERIAL STEP LEARNING OF COGNITIVE SEQUENCES

Tasks that require performing a series of cognitive steps may vary (a) in the goal structures they imply and (b) in the relationships among the inputs and outputs of component steps. In 3 experiments the author s tested the role of these characteristics in determining the benefits of practicing with a consistent sequence of component steps. When sub jects solved simple mathematical equations by using either a hierarchi cal or a flat goal structure, the results showed a benefit of a consis tent sequence in both goal structure conditions. In another experiment , the main manipulation was whether the component steps were cascaded, requiring the output of a step to be used as input to a subsequent st ep. The results showed a greater benefit of a consistent sequence for the cascaded task than for a task that encapsulated each step. These r esults suggest that knowledge acquired from serial step learning is in corporated in the representation of each component step.