PROCEDURAL FRAMEWORKS FOR SIMPLE ARITHMETIC SKILLS

Rule-application skills such as simple arithmetic are often used as co mponents of complex, goal-directed routines, and evidence suggests tha t goals to perform such skills can be instantiated in advance of infor mation about specific operands. The procedural framework hypothesis is that goal instantiation evokes frameworks that guide the application of procedural knowledge, suggesting distinct processing roles for oper ator and operand symbols. In contrast, the uniform role hypothesis sug gests that both types of symbols serve only as retrieval cues. Partici pants in 4 experiments solved simple Boolean or standard arithmetic pr oblems. Serial display of problem elements showed a consistent solutio n-time benefit for operator-first displays compared with operands-firs t displays, supporting the procedural framework hypothesis for both ne w and highly practiced skills.