Factors involved in skill acquisition Flashcards
A tentative list
Intelligence
Talent
Attention
Motivation
Emotion
Teachers, parental support
Consistenct and perserverance
Domain-general mechanisms
Relevant for all types of behavior and the acquisition of
any new skill
Domain-specific mechanisms
Only relevant for a particular skill
Intelligence
refers to relatively stable, interindividual
differences in general abilities and capacities that are
relevant to acquiring new skills and to learning in novel
situations
Expertise key characteristics
rests on specific, acquired mechanisms
which enable experts to circumvent the processing
limitations typical of normal (novice) performance
reflects maximum adaptation to
task- and performance-specific constraints
expertise development amounts to a
gradual de-coupling of domain-specific from domaingeneral skills
Cognitive control
Planning (Goal-Directed Behavior)
Switching and Flexibility
Inhibition (overlearned or planned responses)
Coordination of Attention (Multi-Tasking)
Working Memory
Several networks all using prefrontal cortex as a hub
Goal-directed behavior
- Planning: identify goal, develop subgoals
- Receive information about goals and means (rules
and rewards): what is required to achieve (sub)goals? - Select task-relevant information, including where to
attend and how to respond; filter irrelevant info - Determine what temporal order is required to achieve the subgoals
- Switch tasks if it will result in the hoped-for outcome
- Check progress (monitoring)
Complex task planning: The action hierarchy
Identify goals (create
action hierarchy)
Anticipate consequences
in choosing goals and
subgoals
Represent goals in working
memory
Maintain goal representations in the face of distractions
Different ways to fail
Failure to prioritize (first things first)
Get distracted by irrelevant
information
Failure to meet prerequisites
Fail to inhibit irrelevant
actions
Fail to shift subgoals in time (rigidity, perseveration)
Fail to monitor progress
working memory
Phonological loop: Language
Visuospatial sketchpad: Visual semantics
Episodic buffer: Short term memory
Congitive control requires working memory
WM serves as a transient representation of taskrelevant information
Provides an interface between perception, LTM, and
action and thus, enabling goal-oriented behavior and
decision making
Linked to the lateral prefrontal cortex
Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on
Working Memory Functions
Distinction between stored knowledge (LTM)
and activated information (WM
WM serves as a transient buffer for information stored in other cortical regions
Lateral prefrontal cortex interacts with LTM
memories in dimension-specific regions
Active maintenance and manipulation to
support task at hand
Prepare new information for LTM storage
Delayed Response Task
