ABSTRACT
Learners need procedural information to carry out the recurrent aspects of learning tasks. Just-in-time (JIT) information displays specify how to carry out those tasks at a level of detail that can be immediately understood by all learners (Kester et al., 2006). It is often called ‘how-to instruction,’ ‘rule-based instruction,’ or ‘step-by-step instruction’ and is usually either presented by an instructor or made available in the form of manuals, (online) help systems, job aids, quick reference guides, tablets, smartphones, and so forth. Because the procedural information is identical for many, if not all, learning tasks that invoke the same recurrent constituent skills, it is typically provided by the
first learning task for which the recurrent aspect is relevant. For subsequent learning tasks, it is quickly diminished as learners gain more expertise and no longer need the help (this principle is called *fading*). JIT information combines two things: rules and how to use them. First, it concerns the cognitive rules that allow one to carry out particular recurrent aspects of performance in a correct, algorithmic fashion. The analysis of those rules, or of procedures that combine those rules, is discussed in Chapter 11. Second, it concerns those things that the learner should know in order to be able to correctly apply those rules (i.e., prerequisite knowledge). The analysis of those prerequisite knowledge elements, such as facts, concepts, plans, and principles is discussed in Chapter 12. Clearly, there is a unidirectional relationship between cognitive rules and prerequisite knowledge: Prerequisite knowledge is pre-conditional to correct use of the cognitive rules, but not the other way round. Both cognitive rules and prerequisite knowledge are best presented during practice, precisely when it is needed. When learning to play golf and making your first drives on the driving range, your instructor will probably tell you how to hold your club (a rule), what a ‘club’ is (a concept prerequisite to the use of the rule), how to take your stance (a rule), how to swing the club and follow through with your swing (a rule), and what ‘following through’ is (a concept prerequisite to the use of the rule). Although it is possible to present all of this information beforehand in a classroom lesson or in a textbook, it makes more sense to present it exactly when it is needed, because its activation in short-term working memory during task performance helps learners to construct appropriate cognitive rules in their long-term memory.
