[EANelson]

Do the standards require “automaticity?” How would that be different from fluency? I ask in part because in the 2008 NMAP Report, on page 4-5, cognitive experts Geary, Renya, Siegler, Embertson, and Boykin wrote,

“At all ages, there are several ways to improve the functional capacity of working memory. The most central of these is the achievement of automaticity, that is, the fast, implicit, and automatic retrieval of a fact or a procedure from long-term memory.”

A key word there is “implicit:” Being able to do the right thing instinctively, without necessarily being able to explain why. In solving scientific calculations, because of limits on the duration of novel elements held in working memory during processing, automaticity is vital. How is fluency different? Is implicit recall of an appropriate procedure what students and instructors should aim for under the standards?

[Author]

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