Instructions

In the course of everyday life people repeatedly have to do tasks they have never done before and use systems or technologies that they have not previously encountered. Instrutions are the most common method for communicating to people how to perform those unfamiliar procedural tasks (Eiriksdottir and Catrambone, 2011, p. 749).

The increasing complexity of products might mean that the ability to provide instruction on how to use that complexity may be a limiting factor.

Types of instructions#

Eiriksdottir and Catrambone (2011) identify three types of instructions.

Type of instruction	Description	Level of detail
Examples - instance-oriented instructions	Demonstrate how a single instance is carried out, usually without explanations	Specific and concrete to an instance
Procedures - Task-oriented instructions	Describe how to carry out the task. Describing and explaining each step. No conceptual explanation of how/why this is the structure, the relationships between steps.	Specific to a task
Principles - system-oriented instructions	Provide information about rules & regularities governing the system, task, and task domain. The theory of operation, cause-and-effect etc.	Most general to system and domain

Initial performance#

More correspondence between instructions and task specifics improves initial performance. Leading to a reliance on analogical reasoning and imitation - which are detrimental for learning

Completeness and detail of stepwise instructions improves initial performance but learning transfer decline. Specificity encourages reliance on instructions and minimises thinking.

Little research on initial performance through principles as assumption that most people won't engage. But some evidence that general instructions + examples | principles can improve initial performance.

Learning and transfer#

Procedural instructions can be designed to influence learning and transfer

providing incomplete/general information enhances learning and transfer - related to desirable-difficulties in that it encourages people to engage in effective learning activities
inclusion of principles in instructions can help transfer, but there are unidentified factors that can hinder this - it helps people develop mental models, if the move beyond analogical reasoning to self-explanation etc.
- adding principles to general procedural instructions seems more effective
- fading positions a worked example as transitioning eventually to a practice problem which improves transfer
- emphasising sub-goals in a task domain helps transfer from examples

What is known about instruction use#

Procedural#

People seldom read instructions before use, only when they get stuck. Reasons include

Instructions are not see as useful - inaccurate, out of date etc.
Using instructions involves cognitive effort which people avoid - the effort to connect generic instructions to the specific task/context is part of the problem.

Principles#

A minimalist approach to instructions assumes that people are task oriented suggesting that principles will be ignored. But there is some indication that people will ask for principles after using minimalist instructions and in other situations. Principles are more useful if they relate directly to the needs of the user.

Examples#

People tend to prefer examples. worked-examples are a subset.

Types of instruction: performance, learning & transfer#

Eiriksdottir and Catrambone (2011) identify three types of instruction and examine how each one (and a blend) impact

initial performance - doing the task the first time with the instructions;
learning - performing the same task without instructions, and
transfer - performing a different task without instructions.

Where learning/transfer is seen as a continuum.

References#

Eiriksdottir, E., & Catrambone, R. (2011). Procedural Instructions, Principles, and Examples: How to Structure Instructions for Procedural Tasks to Enhance Performance, Learning, and Transfer. Human Factors, 53(6), 749--770. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720811419154