Being able to follow instructions is a crucial aspect of daily life, since it can directly affect learning and the correct execution of skills, as well as academic performance. For tasks that people don’t do often, like assembling furniture or occasional DIY work, it’s hard to remember how to do them without instructions. The ability to follow directions, gives us tools to adapt and navigate new or unfamiliar situations. However, many people often experience difficulty following multistep instructions. What could be the causes of this difficulty?
Instructions and working memory
Working memory is a fundamental brain function, that connects perception, attention, and long-term memory. For example, when we follow instructions, we often have a tendency to read diagonally, or not pay attention to those elements that we consider accessories, or that don’t arouse our attention. Only the elements to which we pay attention become part of our working memory, afterwards these elements are processed and result in a mental image, which we later store in our long-term memory.
Because working memory is limited, and variable in each person, the ability to follow instructions can be affected if them overwhelms us (Too much text! What a long video!), which ultimately leads to loss of information.
It is even more difficult to remember the instructions when we have to retain the next steps, while paying attention to the previous ones. For example:
Take the table legs and line them up with the designated holes in the tabletop. Insert the size 6 Allen screws into the smaller holes, and the size 10 Allen screws into the larger holes, securing the legs to the tabletop. Then use the appropriate Allen key or spanner to tighten the screws firmly, ensuring a secure fit.
When the time required to complete the instructions exceeds the capacity of our working memory (usually between 2 and 18 seconds), we are forced to actively maintain the instructions. Who has not ever repeated an instruction out loud or “in the head”, over and over again? Personally, I am a disaster when I go out for errands to buy more than 3 things, since my memory is very fleeting.
In addition, this loss of information can be more pronounced when the task must be carried out immediately, after having read or seen the instructions, and we cannot control the speed of presentation, so we are forced to see the rest of the steps. Surely it has happened to you more than once with a video on social networks.
To compensate or reinforce our working memory, we can approach several strategies:
- Get down to work immediately after receiving the instructions. Performing actions with the body also involves our muscle memory, which sets in motion several mechanisms that help our brain to better assimilate information.
- Use different instruction formats in a complementary way (text, image, audio and/or video), which allows us to have more control over the rhythm and, if necessary, go slower to fully internalize the instructions.
The mere presence effect
Our way of acting is highly influenced by the social context in which we find ourselves. In particular, the presence of other people can have a significant effect on our behavior. This phenomenon is known as the “mere presence effect”, whereby the presence of another person can make an individual more docile.
For example, imagine that you are going to assemble that table that we have described above, with some very complicated instructions to remember. Our behavior won’t be the same if we find ourselves alone or in a professional environment, in front of colleagues or superiors. We’ll generally tend to be more docile, because following correctly or not the instructions will have consequences, for our social image (what will they think of me if I’m not able to set up a table), or our reputation at work (if I don’t get out of, they will fire me for being useless).
Although, as a general rule, the mere presence effect is considered to have a positive impact on people, since the presence of an observer, and the possibility of a social reprimand for not following instructions, can increase their follow-up rates. This indicates that social norms, such as obedience to authority figures and fear of negative consequences, can motivate people to comply with instructions. Now is easy to understand why retirees enjoy overseeing the construction works.
Being aware of the instructions
Following instructions also depends on our self-regulation capacity, that is, the awareness we have of our own behavior, in order to act in a more beneficial way for our long-term interests.
To do so, a person must be aware of his own thoughts and actions, observing and evaluating them as they are carried out. This process is called metacognitive monitoring, that is, thinking about how we think, and it is essential when finalizing instructions.
Let’s imagine that Maria decided to assemble a new table for her house, and followed the instructions included in the box. However, upon completion, she noticed that the table did not look like the picture in the instruction manual. By carefully reviewing her instructions, she realized that she skipped some crucial steps. As a result, the table was not set correctly. This example illustrates how a lack of self-regulation and metacognitive monitoring can lead to errors in following directions. By being more aware of her thoughts and actions during the assembly process, Maria could have avoided these mistakes and assembled the table correctly.
One strategy that we can use, to reinforce metacognition when following instructions, is the use of checklists, to help us monitor our thoughts during the process:
Do I have all the parts I need to assemble the table, table legs, tabletop and screws? Are any of the parts damaged or defective? Do I have all the tools needed? Should I put some cardboard on the floor so as not to damage them? Do I need safety globes? Do I have enough space to work?
Following instructions is an important skill that can be influenced by many factors. Sometimes, the presence of other people, or the possibility of rewards and/or punishments, can motivate us to follow instructions, while the lack of awareness of our own behavior can be an obstacle. In either case, being vigilant and aware of how we follow instructions, can help us improve our ability to do so in the future. So pay attention and keep going!
Bibliography
- Sabrina Dunham, Edward Lee, and Adam M. Persky. The Psychology of Following Instructions and Its Implications. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 84, no. 8 (2020)
- Franck Ganier. Factors Affecting the Processing of Procedural Instructions: Implications for Document Design. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 47, no. 1 (April 2004): 15-26.
- Jaroslawska, A.J., Gathercole, S.E., Allen, R.J. et al. Following instructions from working memory: Why does action at encoding and recall help?. Mem Cogn 44, no. 8 (2016): 1183-1191.
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