title: Acquisition and automatization of a complex task: an examination of three-ball cascade juggling.
abstract: The learning patterns of 3-ball cascade juggling from acquisition until automaticity were examined in 10 participants. On the basis of outcome measures derived from 26 practice sessions and 4 periodic probe sessions, the authors differentiated participants into 3 distinct learning types: a proficient group, an emerging group, and a single late learner. The proficient group was distinguished by how rapidly they learned and automatized performance. Most interesting, an inverse response cost (i.e., performance boost) on the secondary task was found in the majority of proficient group members during the dual-task condition. The present results are discussed in relation to the P. L. Ackerman model (1987, 1988) of complex skill acquisition as is the significance of the inverse response cost finding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada. jbebko@yorku.ca
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bebko
authors.forename: Jenny L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Demark
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Osborne
authors.forename: Shilpi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Majumder
authors.forename: Christina J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Ricciuti
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rhee
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Osborn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001332:Automatism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology