Effects of negative information on acquiring procedural knowledge

Abstract

Usually, the material for learning is given in a positive form, i.e. xxx is yyy. This type of information will help organize the core of the target knowledge. Instead of this type of information, negative information, i.e. xxx is not zzz, will help sharpen the edge or extent of the target knowledge. Hence, it is expected that the negative information will have an effect of minimizing the chance of making errors and thus making the learning faster. For the purpose of confirming this hypothesis, we conducted an experiment on the procedural knowledge, i.e. the procedure of application software. We compared the execution time of operation after presenting the positive information (simple explanation) and the negative information (scene of failure and explanation) in terms of the use of software to different subject groups. The result showed that the negative information had a significant effect for a simple operation but had not an effect for a complex operation.