An ordered chaos: how do order effects arise in a cognitive model?

This chapter discusses how order effects arise within EPAM (Elementary Perceiver and Memorizer), an influential computational theory of cognition developed by Feigenbaum and Simon. EPAM acquires knowledge by constructing a discrimination network indexing chunks, closely integrating perception and memory. After a brief description of the theory, including its learning mechanisms, the chapter focuses on three ways order effects occur in EPAM: (a) as a function of attention; (b) as a function of the learning mechanisms; and (c) as a function of the ordering of stimuli in the environment. It illustrates these three cases with the paired-associate task in verbal learning and with an experiment using artificial material. It also addresses some of the implications of this work for education, including how to order hierarchically arrangeable material, and the need to focus learners on important and relevant features.