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The Growth of Competence 189

Table 6.2. Milestones in a century of progress in skill acquisition research.

Year Event Reference
1896 E. L. Thorndike’s dissertation shows practice Thorndike (1898)
curves for animal problem-solving skills.
1913 John B. Watson proclaims that behavior, not Watson (1913)
mind, is the proper subject matter for the
psychology of learning.
1935–1945 psychologists work alongside the founders of Baars (1986); Mandler

the information sciences and information (2002)
technologies in the war effort.
1948 norbert Wiener publishes Cybernetics, a Wiener (1948);
proposal for a unified theory of information Conway &
processing based on feedback circles. Siegelman (2005)
1945–1955 discovery of probability matching; statistical Estes (1950);
learning theory becomes a separate subfield. Grant et al. (1951)
1958 A. newell, J. S. Shaw and H. A. Simon publish newell, Shaw and
the Logic Theorist, the first symbolic Simon (1958)
simulation of a complex cognitive skill.
1960 G. A. Miller and co-authors publish Plans and Miller, Galanter, and
the Structure of Behavior, a unified theory of pribram (1960)
cognition based on the notion of plans.
1960–1970 Applied psychologists R. Gagné and p. M. Fitts Gagné (1965);
propose the notions of multiple mechanisms Fitts (1964)
and of distinct phases of practice.
1965–1975 E. A. Feigenbaum and B. G. Buchanan launch Buchanan &
the study of expert systems in Artificial Feigenbaum (1978);
intelligence. Such systems provided a model davis et al. (1977)
of expertise, the end point of cognitive skill
acquisition.
Early 1970s A. newell creates the first computer newell (1972, 1973)
implemented production system architecture
for the simulation of human cognition.
1979 Y. Anzai and H. A. Simon publish the first Anzai & Simon (1979)
symbolic simulation of skill acquisition.
1983 J. R. Anderson publishes the first version of the Anderson (1983)
ACt model, with six learning mechanisms.
1985–1995 Anders Ericsson launches the empirical study of Ericsson et al. (1993)
expertise as a product of deliberate practice.
1980–2000 Symbolic learning mechanisms proliferate. ohlsson (2008a)
1990–2010 The symbolic (explicit) and statistical (implicit) Anderson (2007);
modes of learning are re-united in hybrid Schneider & oliver
models. (1991); Sun et al.
(2001, 2005)