AUTOMATIZATION: WAY AND DYNAMIC OF ACCESSING TO COMPLEX THINKING

As we seen in the previous chapters, the effects of an extensive practice result in the shift from controlled to automatic processing. For example when learning a new task such as how to play tennis or to drive a car, attention is allocated in order to fulfil task requirements. Performance initially requires controlled processing and is slow, awkward and prone to errors. As training proceeds, performance requires less vigilance, becomes faster and errors decrease, a transformation that can be defined as “automatization”. The purpose of this chapter is to analyse how automatization can work. To begin Anderson’s theory is considered. In her model the rules of new tasks begin to become proceduralised. This proceduralisation frees space in working memory as the knowledge that was once declarative becomes embedded in procedures which do not need to be retrieved in declarative form. Secondly Gopher's model is considered, then the related Logan’s instance theory is presented. In this theory the reduction in RT with practice is explained to occur because subjects employ an alternative strategy of retrieving memory traces left by previous performances (“instances”) and directly choosing the retrieved solution without need for calculation. In the last part of the chapter the effects of practice on automatization and access to complex thinking are presented. A model of access to more complex cognitive processes tasks is combined with the catastrophe model to explain the way to access to more complex cognitive processes.