Automaticity as Memory Retrieval

The theory relates automaticity to memorial aspects of attention rather than resource limitations. It construes automaticity as a memory phenomenon, governed by the theoretical and empirical principles that govern memory. Automaticity is memory retrieval: Performance is automatic when it is based on singlestep direct-access retrieval of past solutions from memory. The theory assumes that novices begin with a general algorithm that is sufficient to perform the task. As they gain experience, they learn specific solutions to specific problems, which they retrieve when they encounter the same problems again. Then, they can respond with the solution retrieved from memory or the one computed by the algorithm. At some point, they may gain enough experience to respond with a solution from memory on every trial and abandon the algorithm entirely. At that point, their performance is automatic. Automatization reflects a transition from algorithmbased performance to memorybased performance.

The idea behind the theory is well illustrated in children's acquisition of simple arithmetic. Initially, children learn to add singledigit numbers by counting (i.e., incrementing a counter by one for each unit of each addend), a slow and laborious process, but one that guarantees correct answers, if applied properly. With experience, however, children learn by rote the sums of all pairs of single digits, and rely on memory retrieval rather than counting (Ashcraft, 1982; Siegler, 1987; Zbrodoff, 1979). Once memory becomes sufficiently reliable, they rely on memory entirely, reformulating more complex problems so that they can be solved by memory retrieval.

Main Assumptions