Using Instructions in Procedural Tasks

The study examined whether an instruction-based strategy (studying the instructions before attempting the task) or task-based strategy (attempting the task and referencing instructions) is more effective for procedural performance and learning. Four groups of participants performed two macramé tasks, and received detailed instructions at different times in the process of attempting the tasks. Performance was measured with task completion time. The results indicated that the instruction-based strategy helped procedural performance as compared to the task-based strategy. Participants not made to use a specific strategy showed the best performance and participants not having access to detailed instructions did the worst. When repeating the tasks a week later without instructions there was no performance difference among the groups.