Windows into the mind

<p>Previous research has shown that incidental exposure to second-language collocations in reading texts can produce gains in declarative collocational knowledge. However, there is little evidence that incidental exposure leads to the acquisition of procedural collocational knowledge. One key study that investigated these two areas was Sonbul and Schmitt (2013). They found that advanced non-native speakers gained substantial declarative knowledge of low-frequency technical collocations after three exposures in two incidental reading conditions in one treatment session; typographic enhancement of the collocations produced more correct answers than no enhancement. However, the researchers found no evidence of procedural collocational knowledge in a primed lexical decision task. Experiment 1 in this thesis was a conceptual replication and extension of Sonbul and Schmitt (2013). In a counter-balanced learning and experimental condition, 62 advanced adult ESL speakers were exposed to nine occurrences of 15 low-frequency technical collocations in 500-word texts in three sessions on two consecutive days. (input flooding). Three incidental learning treatments were implemented: reading-only (typographically unenhanced), bolding-only and bolding-plus-glossing. Collocational knowledge was assessed in two tests of declarative knowledge: a cued-recall (gapfill) test and a form-recognition (multiple-choice) test. Procedural collocational knowledge was operationalised as a priming effect in a primed lexical decision task. The results of the immediate cued-recall and form-recognition post-tests corroborate Sonbul and Schmitt’s findings: multiple encounters with the collocations produced substantial declarative collocational knowledge, and more declarative knowledge was produced through exposure to typographically-enhanced collocations (with and without glosses) than to typographically-unenhanced collocations. Procedural knowledge was found, but, unexpectedly, only in the reading-only treatment. Experiment 2 focused on non-technical lexical (verb + noun) collocations and grammatical (preposition + noun) collocations. Two incidental learning conditions were used: bolding and no-bolding. Seventy-eight intermediate-to-upper-intermediate-level adult native speakers of Chinese were exposed to six occurrences of each of 48 non-technical English collocations as they read twelve 170-word treatment texts on two consecutive days. The immediate post-test session comprised a gapfill (cued-recall) test, for measuring declarative knowledge, and a self-paced reading task, for measuring procedural knowledge. The results show an increase in declarative knowledge in both learning conditions. Bolding produced more declarative knowledge of preposition + noun collocations than no bolding; however, bolding was no more effective than no bolding for verb + noun collocations. In the self-paced reading task, the absence of bolding of verb + noun collocations led to a tendency towards the development of procedural knowledge, but this was not the case for the typographically enhanced verb + noun collocations. For preposition + noun collocations (both unbolded and bolded) no evidence of procedural knowledge was found. The findings of both experiments indicate that input flooding of collocations in incidental learning conditions can produce declarative collocational knowledge, and that typographic enhancement may lead to more declarative knowledge than lack of typographic enhancement. Repeated exposure to typographically-unenhanced collocations in reading contexts may produce procedural knowledge of collocations more quickly than exposure to typographically-enhanced collocations. These findings indicate that declarative and procedural knowledge of MWUs are dissociated in the sense that they follow different developmental paths. In a teaching context, I predict that the knowledge of collocations may be acquired incidentally through the use of texts such as graded readers which contain multiple instances of collocations.</p>

Concept mapping is a mindtool (cognitive tool) that can enhance the interdependence of declarative and procedural knowledge to produce yet another form of knowledge representation known as structural knowledge (Jonassen, 1996). Structural knowledge is best described as knowing why something is the case. It helps learners integrate and interrelate declarative and procedural knowledge by activating the perceived static nature of declarative knowledge and by increasing the awareness of why one knows how to do something. By using computer-based concept mapping tools as a cognitive or learning strategy, learners can sharpen inference-making and critical thinking skills and can avoid the acquisition and accumulation of inert (unusable) knowledge. This article discusses the use and application of two computer-based concept mapping tools, Inspiration® and Semnet®, in educational contexts to foster meaningful learning and understanding. Inspiration® and Semnet® are visual thinking environments that allow users to create concept maps, semantic networks, outlines, graphic organizers and other comprehension monitoring activities. The article addresses the use of computer-based concept mapping as a learning strategy, an instructional strategy, and as a collaborative thinking tool, offering guidelines for educators on how to implement these uses in the classroom.

The potential of Virtual Reality (VR) in enhancing learning and training is being widely explored. The relationship of immersion, as one of the core technical features of VR, with knowledge types has not been fully explored. This study aims to investigate how VR immersion levels (high vs. low) affect the acquisition of declarative and procedural knowledge, as well as related cognitive and affective factors. A 2 × 2 mixed design was adopted, with 64 college students who had no VR experience and no background in professional medical knowledge being randomly assigned to either a high-immersion group (using HTC Vive Pro headsets) or a low-immersion group (using desktop monitors). Participants completed learning tasks on thyroid and related diseases (declarative knowledge) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (procedural knowledge), followed by knowledge tests and self-report questionnaires to measure presence, motivation, self-efficacy, cognitive load, and emotional states. Results showed that high immersion significantly improved learning outcomes for both types of knowledge with large effect sizes. In both knowledge domains, high immersion also enhanced presence, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and positive emotions. However, cognitive load was reduced only for declarative knowledge, and no significant effects were observed for self-regulation. These findings highlight the differential impact of VR immersion on knowledge acquisition and provide insights for optimizing VR-based educational interventions.

It appears that there are resemblances in the organization of memory and the visual system, although the functions of these faculties differ considerably. In this article, the principles behind this organization are discussed. One important principle regards the distinction between declarative and procedural knowledge, between knowing that and knowing how. Declarative knowledge is considered here not as an alternative kind of knowledge, as is usually the case in theories of memory, but as part of procedural knowledge. In our view this leads to another approach with respect to the distinction. Declarative knowledge has occupied more attention in (cognitive) psychological research than can be justified on the basis of the importance of procedural knowledge for behavior. We also discuss the question whether there are other brain faculties that reflect the same organizational characteristics. We conclude with some speculations about the consequent role of consciousness in such a tentative model.

‘High-quality talk’ is a fundamental principle of many approaches to teaching grammar. However, relatively few studies have attempted to characterize this talk with attention to the ways in which classroom dialogue might engender metalinguistic thinking. This paper explores how the concepts of procedural and declarative metalinguistic knowledge may be applied to classroom discourse in order to identify the problems and potentials of grammatical ‘Metatalk’. The data is drawn from observations of functionally-oriented grammar lessons in 17 classrooms across England. This opportunity sample was drawn from the intervention group of a randomized control trial, all of whom were working within a pedagogical model which embeds attention to grammar as a resource for meaning-making within the teaching of writing. Given the impact of effective teacher-student dialogue on student learning, studies such as this are valuable for illuminating how classroom talk operates within the teaching of grammar for writing. The findings particularly reveal the role of teacher-guided talk during collaborative writing activities in facilitating bi-directional transfer between declarative and procedural metalinguistic knowledge.

In this study, we investigated the effects of students’ participation in a collaborative, project-based engineering design course on their domain knowledge, interests, and strategic processing. Participants were 70 college seniors working in teams on a design project of their choosing. Their declarative, procedural, and principled knowledge, along with their domain interest and their interest in select roles within that domain were tested at the outset of the semester and at its conclusions. Findings indicated that this course contributed to a rise in students’ declarative knowledge, but not their procedural or principled knowledge of engineering design. Further, there was no significant change in students’ personal interest in the domain over the semester, and their role interests were not associated with their demonstrated knowledge in the field at posttest. Implications for the perceived effectiveness of learning environments consisting of peer collaboration and relevant problems on students’ academic development are considered.

Knowledge Representation Methods for Dairy Decision Support Systems

To determine whether youth athletes with an “average” (regional), “high” (sub-elite), and “very high” (elite) level of performance differ with respect to their self-assessed tactical skills, 191 youth field hockey players (mean age 15.5 years, s = 1.6) completed the Tactical Skills Inventory for Sports (TACSIS) with scales for declarative (“knowing what to do”) and procedural (“doing it”) knowledge. Multivariate analyses of covariance with age as covariate showed that elite and sub-elite players outscored regional players on all tactical skills (P < 0.05), whereas elite players had better scores than sub-elite players on “positioning and deciding” (P < 0.05) only. The sex of the athletes had no influence on the scores (P > 0.05). With increasing level of performance, scores on declarative and procedural knowledge were higher. Close to expert performance, declarative knowledge no longer differentiated between elite and sub-elite players (P > 0.05), in contrast to an aspect of procedural knowledge (i.e. positioning and deciding), where elite players outscored sub-elite players (P < 0.05). These results may have implications for the development of talented athletes.

Professional handball coaches management of players' situated understanding during official games

Skilled behaviour in real-world contexts often relies on a combination of both declarative and procedural learning. However, precisely how declarative and procedural knowledge interact is not yet fully understood. Previous findings have shown that procedural and declarative learning may interact or compete at the systems level during encoding, consolidation, and retrieval, but beyond this, it is not known whether declarative and procedural representations themselves interact. The goal of the current study is to investigate whether procedural and declarative knowledge can contribute simultaneously to categorization response selection behavior. We designed a stimulus set in which information learned by each system sometimes supports different responses, and created trials in the test phase that are designed to maximize such divergence. Participants were instructed to use a completely diagnostic, verbalizable, shape-based rule to categorize exemplars, receiving feedback after each trial. However, unbeknownst to participants, the categories also differed probabilistically in their color distributions. Participants used both color (learned procedurally) and shape (learned declaratively) to categorize exemplars, responding more quickly when both sources indicated the same category judgement, and more slowly when they conflicted. Debriefing confirmed that most participants were unaware of the color distributions. These results show simultaneous trial-level contributions from both declarative and procedural memory systems. Our findings represent a novel form of interaction between the two systems and have implications for domains beyond the laboratory, such as decision-making and classroom instruction.

This paper describes a methodology for applying expert systems to the task of executing process plans as a control mechanism for the factory floor. This methodology includes an architecture for representing both declarative and procedural knowledge. Declarative knowledge describes the state of the factory floor and the process plan operations that can be performed on parts on the factory floor (e.g., machining and assembly operations). Declarative knowledge is represented using both facts and schemata. Procedural knowledge identifies when and how process plan operations are to be executed. Procedural knowledge is represented using data-driven rules with an asynchronous event handling capability. Rules that determine when process plan operations can be performed embody largely domain-independent scheduling knowledge. Rules that determine how to execute process plan operations require domain-dependent knowledge about particular operations. Both of these types of rules also require information about the current state of the factory floor. A context graph mechanism is included in the methodology to represent temporal precedence constraints among process plan operations (i.e., the structure of a context graph indicates process plan operation precedences). Contexts are also used to represent a part configuration relative to a process plan operation. A prototype expert system based on the methodology presented in this paper has been developed using the Automated Reasoning Tool (ART).

Background and Study Aim. Tactical knowledge, both declarative and procedural, is an essential component of cognitive development in youth soccer. The aim of this study is to describe and analyze the declarative and procedural tactical knowledge of youth football players from a professional club in southern Chile. Material and Methods. The Soccer Offensive Tactical Knowledge Test and Procedural Tactical Knowledge Test were the instruments used in the study to assess declarative tactical knowledge (game principles and decision making) and procedural knowledge (execution based on the tactical strategy in a 3x3 reduced-field). Assessments of functional differences could be evaluated due to the representation of players from various positions in the sample. Results. The results indicated superior performance in off-ball procedural skills (JSB: 4.19 ± 1.64) but poor performance in off-ball marking (MJSB: 3.56 ± 2.09), illustrating limitations in defensive anticipation and positional reading. Defenders performed better than midfielders and forwards in all procedural dimensions (p &lt; 0.05), indicating an internalization of tactics in a functional way according to their positional roles. At the declarative level, operational principles–based knowledge among the participants was found to be relatively higher (8.57 ± 2.63), while decision making was found to be lower in this study (5.94 ± 2.28), indicating a deviation from theory to practical execution. No significant differences were found by position in this type of knowledge. Conclusions. The finding of a partial dissociation between declarative and procedural learning, as confirmed earlier in related work, has implications for the methodological design of coaching at the U13 and U14 levels. It indicates why emergent-based methodologies that support the interweaving of tactical thought and action to enable adjusted and effective learning in grassroots football are urgently needed.

This paper focuses on the interactions among four constructs during skill acquisition: (1) the dynamic changes in attentional demands of the task to be acquired, (2) individual differences in cognitive and intellectual abilities, (3) conative (motivational), metacognitive processes involved in changes of attentional focus, and (4) knowledge structures acquired through part-task training. An attentional model is reviewed that describes how these variables interact during three phases of skill acquisition (i.e., during declarative knowledge, knowledge compilation, and at the level of proceduralized knowledge). Empirical demonstration of the framework is provided in the context of complex skill acquisition. Supportive results from a series of empirical studies are reviewed.

In addition to content knowledge, it is necessary to teach learning skills. Using relevant learning skills assures better learning outcomes and abilities for the whole life course. Due to a packed curriculum or teachers having insufficient skills, student learning skills are often neglected. The aim of this study is to find out whether it is possible to support the development of declarative knowledge in learning skills in teachers through procedural knowledge acquired via practical teaching activities. A quasi-experimental study using semi-structured pre- and post-intervention interviews and six-month intervention activities was conducted with 14 teachers. The procedural knowledge of the teachers was assessed based on their practical experience with the intervention activities. Their declarative knowledge was assessed based on pre- and post-intervention interview reflections. The findings revealed that procedural knowledge, being predominantly teacher centred, mostly appears through experience and reflections on the teaching practice that guides them. It also appeared that the intervention focusing on advancing procedural knowledge among teachers advanced their declarative knowledge in terms of metacognition, revealing new aspects of motivation and sense-giving for their learning. As follow-up research, we plan to continue studying conditional knowledge in teachers in order to identify situations where this is applied.

Acquisition and transfer of declarative and procedural knowledge by memory-impaired patients: A computer data-entry task