title: The effects of the amount and variability of practice on the learning of a multi-segmented motor task.
abstract: Since the Shea, J.B. and Morgan (1979) study, investigators have repeatedly shown that the learning of a set of movement patterns (as evaluated in a retention test) is enhanced when acquisition occurred under a random rather than a blocked schedule of practice. Supposedly, this is the case because a random schedule of practice necessitates more elaborate cognitive activities than a blocked schedule before each acquisition trial can be initiated. Our main objective was to determine whether the advantage for learning found for random practice increases as a function of the number of acquisition trials. During acquisition, the results indicated a general tendency for smaller movement reproduction errors under a blocked rather than a random schedule of practice. However, this effect disappeared with larger amount of acquisition trials. In retention, larger errors were observed when acquisition occurred under a blocked rather than a random schedule of practice. Finally, the disadvantage for learning observed for the blocked schedule of practice disappeared under a block-repeated condition in which each movement pattern was first practiced under a blocked schedule which was then repeated a second time. The results are discussed in terms of the so-called contextual interference effect and indicates some of its limitations.
authors.affiliation: Département d'éducation physique, Université de Montréal, Canada.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Proteau
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Blandin
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alain
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dorion
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance