Individual Differences in Learning and Cognitive Abilities.

摘要

This final report reviews a program of theoretical and empirical research focusing on the ability determinants of individual differences in skill acquisition. An integrative framework for information processing and cognitive ability determinants of skills is presented, along with principles for ability-skill relations. Three major patterns of individual differences during skill acquisition are considered: changes in between-subject variability, the simplex pattern of trial intercorrelations, and changing ability-performance correlations with practice. In addition to a review of previous theory and data, experimental manipulations are used to evaluate the cognitive ability demands associated with information processing parameters of skilled performance. A complex air traffic controller simulation task used in several investigations is introduced, along with empirical tests of the theoretical principles. Examination of practice-related between-subject variance changes and ability-performance correlations are used to demonstrate that an equivalence exists between three broad phase of skill acquisition and three cognitive/intellectual ability determinants of individual differences. Recent extrapolation of the theory to a dynamic representation of abilities is reviewed, and preliminary and papers describing research carried out under this contract are listed, along with associated abstracts. (SDW)