The chunking of skill and knowledge

Abstract: "This article describes recent work that utilizes the concept of chunking as the basis for an integrated model of the acquisition of both skill and knowledge. We look at results in the areas of practice (skill) and verbal learning (knowledge). The approach is based on viewing task performance as a problem solving process and chunking as a learning process that stores away information about the results of problem solving. In practice tasks, chunks acquired during the solution of one problem can be used during later problems to speed up the system's performance. This chunking process produces the same type of power-law practice curves that appear so ubiquitously in human practice. In verbal learning tasks, chunks acquired during training are used at test time to determine how to respond. This psychological model is a manifestation of a set of processes that provide the basis of a general architecture. Such an architecture is not only interesting in its own right, but provides support for the more narrowly based psychological phenomena."