Whether skill acquisition is rule or instance based is determined by the structure of the task
Niels Anne Taatgen, Dieter Wallach · 2002
The traditional view of skill acquisition is that it can be explained by a gradual transition from behavior based on declarative rules in the form of examples or instructions towards general knowledge represented by procedural rules. This view is challenged by Logan’s instance theory, which specifies that skill acquisition can be explained by the accumulation of examples or instances of the skill. The position defended in this paper is that both types of learning can occur — but their success will depend on the respective task. In the Sugar Factory task, it is very hard to determine the rule guiding the system, rule learning will thus fail while instance learning dominates. In the Anderson-Fincham task, mainly rule learning occurs, but variations in the task show evidence for some instance learning as well. Experiments involving both tasks are modeled using ACT-R, a hybrid cognitive architecture whose adaptive learning mechanisms seem to be well suited for modeling two very different tasks using the same methods.