Call to Order: How Sequence Effects in Humans and Artificial Systems Illuminate Each Other

We start by describing and defining order effects and how they can be further developed. We introduce the first five chapters that provide overviews of the relevant areas of instructional design, machine learning, cognitive models (symbolic and connectionist), and human data. The second group of five chapters present information processing models that predict order effects as well as provide supporting data in many cases. The final group of three chapters illustrates order effects empirically obtained (or not obtained) in educational settings. A concluding chapter pulls together the results, and calls for further, more detailed exploration of order effects by using techniques and data across, rather than simply within, the relevant areas. The chapters in this book show that the order in which material is presented can strongly influence what is learned in a variety of domains and in both humans and theoretical models of learning. From these chapters we compile suggestions for improving learning through better sequences of learning materials and highlight some of the numerous questions that the chapters raise.