Factors appearing late in practice

Abstract

With extended practice on a task a shift seems to occur from controlled to automatic processing. If differential factors associated with automatic processing exist, they could only be observed after this shift occurs. Hence, any such factor would be late-appearing, in the sense that it could only be identified late in practice. The present paper reports two tests of the existence of late-appearing factors. Both tests involved extended practice on five video games; the two tests were carried out in two different populations approximately 1 year apart. The results of the two experiments were in complete agreement. In both cases all factors, with one possible exception in the second experiment, were identified by content exclusively and not by stage of practice. The results, therefore, are negative. Other studies using other materials, other subjects, or other conditions of practice may reach different conclusions; but the studies reported in this paper offer no support for the existence of late-appearing factors.