Emphasis Change and Verbal Elaboration in Skill Acquisition: A Tale of Two Components

The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between multiple emphasis on components (MEC) and verbal elaboration in the acquisition of a complex skill. Participants were trained using either MEC or emphasis on total score (TOT), with or without verbal elaboration between training modules. Results indicated low-aptitude learners performed better when trained with the MEC protocol than with the TOT protocol, but high-aptitude learners benefited from verbal elaborations. Analysis of the component scores indicated that the combined effects of verbal elaboration and MEC disrupted components representing implicit processing, and enhanced components representing explicit processes. These findings are consistent with other research on verbal elaboration and suggest that care must be taken when combining verbal elaboration with emphasis change instructions. More importantly, these results suggest ways to effectively combine the two protocols.