Procedures of mind

Abstract

The prevailing metaphor for studies of learning and memory emphasizes the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of “information”; within this framework, mind is often treated as if it were a physical object and information similarly is assumed to have physicalistic properties. Evidence that supports a more process-oriented view of information processing is offered. Mind is described in terms of skill in manipulating symbols and the notion of skills is shown to provide a useful framework for accounting for significant aspects of cognitive processes. Evidence supporting the procedural view includes studies that show that the means of acquisition of information form part of its representation in mind, that recognition varies with the similarity of procedures in acquisition and test, and that transfer between tasks varies with the degree of correspondence of underlying procedures.