Development and Approbation of a Psychophysical Method for the Study of Skill Acquisition and Improvement

Abstract

A method has been developed and tested to study the processes of acquisition/improvement of a skill. The method is based on the Signal Detection Theory and the “Yes-No” task and involves the evaluation of short time intervals. The theoretical justification of the use of this technique for studying the acquisition/improvement of a skill was given from the standpoint of the system-evolutionary approach. The main factors that can act as side variables during the use of this technique were taken into account and leveled, especially the so-called «sensory» adaptation and existing experience. Two experimental series was conducted, each of which was aimed at checking the factors that distorted the results. In the first series, the focus was on the «sensitization” factor. The phenomenon of sensitization for the task of distinguishing short time intervals and the method of accounting for this factor was described. In the second series, the discriminativity of the method was investigated, and the parameters of the complexity of the task were selected for further empirical research of skill acquisition/improvement.