Chunking

Chunking

The process by which knowledge components are reorganized into larger structures and become functional in performance. Fluency is facilitated by the acquisition of new chunks and the refinement of currently existing chunks.

Relevant theories include Newell's Soar, Anderson's ACT-R, Simon's EPAM, Grossberg’s avalanche, the linguistic theory of constructions, MacWhinney's Competition model, and others. The Competition Model treats a word as a nexus of information on the articulatory, auditory, lexical, and syntactic levels, an associations of chunks. It proposes a specific account of chunk development. Learning begins with item-based chunks specific to particular words with slots open for argument fillers. Refinement then works to generalize these slots. Next, item-based chunks are generalized into constructions. Then constructions are then generalized into global patterns. First language learning involves a process of generalization moving across these phases. Over time, these chunks and patterns become entrenched to maximize interoperability between chunks

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