What Is Procedural Knowledge?

Procedural knowledge is the knowledge that an individual does not consciously extract clues and can only indirectly infer its existence by means of some form of work. Procedural knowledge is a set of operational steps, and it is about "how to do". In the first stage of learning process knowledge, it is a declarative form of acquiring process knowledge. New knowledge enters the original proposition network and forms a connection with the original knowledge. In the second stage, after various variant exercises, the declarative knowledge stored in the propositional network is transformed into procedural knowledge that is represented and stored in a production system. In the third stage, procedural knowledge is extracted based on clues to solve the "how to do" problem.

Procedural knowledge is the knowledge that an individual does not consciously extract clues and can only indirectly infer its existence by means of some form of work. Procedural knowledge is a set of operational steps, and it is about "how to do". In the first stage of learning process knowledge, it is a declarative form of acquiring process knowledge. New knowledge enters the original proposition network and forms a connection with the original knowledge. In the second stage, after various variant exercises, the declarative knowledge stored in the propositional network is transformed into procedural knowledge that is represented and stored in a production system. In the third stage, procedural knowledge is extracted based on clues to solve the "how to do" problem.

Chinese name

Procedural knowledge

Foreign name

ProductiveKnowledge

Applied discipline

psychology

Procedural knowledge

The modern view of knowledge divides knowledge into declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge according to the different forms of reflecting activities. Procedural knowledge is also called operational knowledge. It is the knowledge that individuals are difficult to state clearly and can only indirectly guess their existence by means of some form of work. This kind of knowledge is mainly used to answer the question of "how to think" and "how to do", which is mainly represented by production and production systems to solve the problem of what to do and how to do it.

According to American psychologist Gagne, procedural knowledge includes two subcategories of mental skills and cognitive strategies. Mental skills are the procedural knowledge of using external concepts and rules to process external information. Cognitive strategy can also be called strategic knowledge, which is procedural knowledge that uses concepts and rules to regulate internally. It is mainly used to regulate and control its own processing activities.

Procedural knowledge

According to different standards, procedural knowledge can be divided into different types. As far as the scope of use is concerned, there is procedural knowledge in general and special fields; in terms of the degree of automation, there is automated and controllable procedural knowledge. Some procedural knowledge can be applied to various fields in general, and is not closely related to any particular field, so it is called procedural knowledge in the general field. This kind of procedural knowledge is characterized as a production system in the general domain in human memory, in fact, it is also generally called a general method or general approach, such as the method of writing a work plan, the principle of interpersonal communication, and so on.

According to the degree of automation, procedural knowledge can be divided into automated and controllable. Comparing automated and controllable procedural knowledge, there are generally the following differences: 1. The former operates extremely fast and generally cannot exert intentional influence, and people are almost unconscious when they are activated; the latter generally runs slower and individual Ability to consciously monitor such programs. 2. The former are surprisingly accurate, they almost always produce the correct expected behavior, but the latter are not. 3. The former, due to its high degree of automation, requires little thinking, and therefore occupies less cognitive resources. The latter obviously uses cognitive resources and takes up working memory space. A person's capacity for meticulous thinking at a certain time is limited. Generally speaking, a person cannot use multiple controllable procedural knowledge at the same time. 4. The former can't be expressed in language due to automation; the latter can often be expressed in language due to the low degree of automation. ^[1]

Procedural knowledge representation

1. Production

Modern cognitive psychologists believe that the smallest unit of procedural knowledge is production. Production is the so-called condition-action rule, or ca rule for short. The ca rule is similar to the behavioral s-r formula, but there are also differences in principle. The similarity is that whenever s appears or the conditions are met, a reaction or activity occurs; the difference is that c in ca is not an external stimulus, but information, that is, the information kept in short-term memory, a is not only external Explicit responses also include intrinsic mental activity or calculations. The production method can be seen in Table 1 (the activities in the first production are "praising" children, the activities in the second production are "recognition" and "speaking" triangles).

Production of triangles for enforcement and discrimination

2. Production system

Simple productions can only accomplish a single activity. Some tasks need to complete a series of activities, so many simple productions are needed to characterize this activity. After contact, simple productions can be combined into complex production systems. This production system is considered the psychological mechanism of complex skills. If it is said that a number of propositions form a proposition network through their common ideas, then productions are linked to each other through control flow. When the activity of one production creates the necessary conditions for the operation of another production, the control flow flows from one production to another. See Table 2:

The connection between procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge

The acquisition of declarative knowledge is often the basis for learning procedural knowledge, and the acquisition of procedural knowledge provides a reliable guarantee for the acquisition of new declarative knowledge. (For example, when learning a foreign language, learning vocabulary and grammatical rules is to master declarative knowledge. Through a lot of repeated exercises, when the understanding and use of foreign languages are as fluent as the native language, declarative knowledge about foreign languages is transformed into procedural knowledge); the acquisition of declarative knowledge and the acquisition of procedural knowledge are learning processes There are two consecutive stages (such as "the first thing to know when solving an equation is the rule of balance between the two sides of the equation"). What can be said about this rule is declarative knowledge, and the skill of operation process is procedural knowledge. ^[2]

The difference between procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge

1. Declarative knowledge is "what" knowledge, which is characterized by propositions and propositional networks; procedural knowledge is "how to do" knowledge, which is represented by productions.

2. Declarative knowledge is a kind of static knowledge whose activation is the reproduction of input information; procedural knowledge is a kind of dynamic knowledge whose activation is the deformation and operation of information.

3. The speed of declarative knowledge activation is relatively slow, which is an intentional process that requires learners to recognize or reproduce relevant facts; and the speed of procedural knowledge activation is fast, which is an automated information deformation activity.

4. Most declarative knowledge can be imparted through language (such as "China's capital is Beijing"), while most procedural knowledge cannot be imparted through language (such as many people can swim, but cannot pass this skill through language To others).

5. Declarative knowledge can be acquired through the media, lectures, etc. (such as the knowledge of H1N1 influenza prevention), and procedural knowledge must be obtained through practice and practice (such as cycling technology).

6. Declarative knowledge can be expressed through application, recall, recognition, and connection with other knowledge, while procedural knowledge must be expressed through various operating steps.

In many activities, the two types of knowledge are combined. During the learning process, they were initially acquired in the form of declarative knowledge. Only after a lot of practice did procedural knowledge have the characteristics of automation. Learner's procedural knowledge will also promote the learning of new declarative knowledge. Generally speaking, the main use of activities under familiar conditions is procedural knowledge. ^[2]