Learning mechanisms in cognitive skill acquisition

According to most current theories, it is assumed that skill acquisition is based on a continuous and data-driven learning Process. Our main goal in the Present article is to demonstrate that these assumptions are severely limited. A review of the main theories of cognitive skill acquisition is followed by a summary of our own research on the topic of "information reduction" (Haider & Frensch, 1996, submitted-a, submitted-b). Our results show that the process of skill acquisition can be accompanied by a decline in the amount of information that is considered when a task is processed. Information reduction appears to be based on active selection of task-relevant information. Data from 6 single-case studies and re-analyses of earlier data strongly suggest that the experimental tasks used in our own research lead to discontinuities in learning curves, implying that the process of skill acquisition can be both continuous and discontinuous. These findings and their implications are discussed and an extension of the present theories is proposed.