The effect of task complexity and expert system type on the acquisition of procedural knowledge
| Autor: | Maureen Francis Mascha |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2001 |
| Předmět: |
Information Systems and Management
Knowledge management Computer science business.industry Control (management) Task completion Procedural knowledge Affect (psychology) computer.software_genre Knowledge acquisition Expert system Management Information Systems Learning effect Task (project management) Accounting business computer Finance Cognitive psychology |
| Zdroj: | International Journal of Accounting Information Systems. 2:103-124 |
| ISSN: | 1467-0895 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/s1467-0895(01)00016-1 |
| Popis: | Prior studies in accounting examining the effect of expert system use on procedural knowledge acquisition have reported that providing feedback in the form of rules, text explanation, or examples had no incremental effect on procedural knowledge acquisition. This finding is contrary to literature in psychology regarding the impact of feedback on knowledge acquisition. One of the reasons that the accounting literature may not show that feedback impacts knowledge acquisition relates to task complexity. Simple tasks require little processing on the part of the decision-maker and may not lead to learning effects even when feedback is provided. On the other hand, feedback coupled with complex tasks that require increased processing may help the decision-maker learn more about task completion causing knowledge acquisition to occur. This study extends previous research by examining whether task complexity and the type of feedback provided by an expert system affect the acquisition of procedural knowledge. This issue is important since procedural knowledge acquisition may differ between certain combinations of tasks and expert system types. This study manipulates both task complexity and the type of feedback provided by an expert system. The findings indicate that task complexity plays a major role in the acquisition of procedural knowledge for expert system users. Subjects in the expert system groups who evaluated the complex cases acquired a significantly greater amount of procedural knowledge than subjects who evaluated the simple cases. As predicted, there was no difference in amount of procedural knowledge acquired between subjects in the control groups regardless whether the task was simple or complex. Results also qualify findings of previous research in noting that acquisition of procedural knowledge only significantly differed between expert system users and the control group when the task was complex. These findings indicate that, of the two components, feedback and task complexity, task complexity plays the more important role in affecting procedural knowledge acquisition. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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