The Theory of Learning by Not Doing

the goal of instruction and training in real- world settings should first be to support a level of
performance in the long term, and second to support the capability to trans- fer that training to
novel-tasks environments. Methodologically, in order to measure a genuine learning effect, some
form of long-term assessment of retention must take place; skill acqui- sition is not a reliable
indicator of learning.

difficulties for the learner can enhance long- term learning

 vary the scheduling of tasks during practice were reported

Random practice is more diffi- cult than blocked schedules of practice, as a given task is
never practiced on the successive trial.

using a complex motor task involving picking up a tennis ball and using it to knock over
a particular set of barriers

 vary the feedback the learner receives

frequent feedback may actually serve to block information-processing ac- tivities that are
important during the skill-acquisition phase.

 variability during practice

practicing tossing a beanbag at a target at a particular distance. Practicing at variable

distances is more effective than practicing at a fixed distance

the high coherence texts produced better performance

Good procedural instructions for interactive devices must satisfy two criteria

 First, they must support performance. Like all proce- dural instructions they should
effectively communicate the pro- cedure they describe, so as to allow users who don’t
know the procedure to enact it successfully and efficiently.
 Second, they must support learning. In common with instructions for all pro- cedures that
will be used repeatedly, they should facilitate subsequent memory for the procedure, so
that it might later be performed without consulting the instructions.

the relevance of the theory of text comprehension to the design of instruction for interactive
procedure

They argued that in the case of procedural instructions the distinction between situation model
and text base maps directly onto a distinction between memory for the procedure (as tested by
later task performance) and memory for the instructions themselves.

the increased exposure to the device in the read-and-do condition resulted in improved task
performance times relative to the read-only condition. How- ever, text recall was better in the
read-only condition, support- ing the conceptual separation of text base and situation model.