The relationship between working memory capacity and movement memory of dancers

Working memory capacity span tasks are suggested to predict complex cognitive behaviour across varied domains (Conway et al., 2005). However, it has been criticised that expert skills are highly situational and domain specific (Marteniuk, 1974). The current research aimed to investigate whether general memory span was related to movement span, and furthermore, whether this can predict dance learning. It was expected that memory for movement would be positively correlated with measures of working memory, due to the specific components of working memory, such as the capacity of the phonological loop. Furthermore, it was expected on the basis of previous research (e.g., Starkes, Deakin, Lindley & Crisp, 1987) involving the serial position accuracy of dance items, that there would be a demonstration of serial position of movement recall that is different to the general serial position curve (Murdoch, 1962). Data was collected from 30 dancers from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Results supported the hypothesis that memory for dance movement would be positively correlated with general measures of memory span and that only primacy effects would be observed in the serial recall of dance movement. Consequently, it was proposed that verbal span measures may be able to predict something about the nature of an expert dancers ability to recall new dance steps due to an enhanced rehearsal mechanism. It is suggested that further research is required to investigate the complexity of the working memory theory in relation to movement memory to provide a better understanding of memory and learning processes

Transfer of automatic skills: the role of automaticity in skill acquisition and transfer

Skill acquisition theories suggest that automaticity of lower-level processes is required before the acquisition of higher-level skills can be attempted. However, there is a disparity between the theoretical expectations of skill acquisition and the empirical findings in the transfer of training research. Research has found that when a change is made to the contextual conditions in which a skill is acquired, the learned response becomes less skilled. When skill transfer occurs performance is disrupted so that reaction times are slower than observed prior to the context change. This observation has been made with several different tasks, however no research has established whether a transfer disruption is observed with automatic skills. The discrepancy between the theoretical assumptions and empirical findings suggests that aiming for automaticity in education may not be best practice. The experiments in the current thesis were designed to examine whether automaticity disrupts or enhances transfer performance. The studies were based on Lassaline and Logan’s (1993) visual numerosity task and Speelman and Parkinson’s (2012) two-step task design. The study has a particular emphasis on individual differences, and thus individual participant data are explored to determine the pervasiveness of trends observed in the group data. In experiment one it was found that experimental design might play a role in the acquisition and probability of transfer, with the experimental conditions revealing differences in disruption and acquisition of automaticity. Group results in experiment two suggest that automaticity is unaffected by context changes, however individual results revealed that some participants failed to approach automatic performance. In experiment three participants were approaching automaticity, however a large percentage of participants did not demonstrate a shift from controlled to automatic processing. Furthermore, group results suggest that performance is unaffected by context changes in transfer, yet, this observation was not reliably presented amongst individuals with many individuals demonstrating transferable skills while not attaining automaticity. Overall, the results appear to be congruent with Lassaline and Logan’s (1993) findings. According to the group data, automaticity appears to facilitate transfer, and performance continues in accordance with the power law of learning; automaticity was transferred despite novel context changes. However, individual data indicates that not all participants are behaving this way. The current results question whether automaticity should be the desired outcome in education settings as many people failed to achieve automaticity. Further research is required at an individual level that includes factors such as working memory ability and task approach to determine why some participants deviate way from group data trends, and why they may be affected differently by context changes