Lecture 24

Question 1

How we practice influences
learning effectiveness

Answer 1

How much/often we practice
What we practice (content)
Organisation of skills
Consolidation techniques

Question 2

Early improvement in skill acquisition is generally

Answer 2

large and becomes smaller with additional practice

Question 3

All things being equal, more learning will occur

Answer 3

with more practice

Question 4

Plateaus

Answer 4

in performance likely during skill acquisition

Question 5

Motor learning is enhanced when learners

Answer 5

control aspects of the practice

Question 6

Cigar rolling

Answer 6

Demonstrates the power of practice

Question 7

What should we practice?

Answer 7

It used to be thought that you
only learn what you practice
(specific), However, we now know that transfer of practice can occur

Question 8

Practice content should reflect

Answer 8

the performance environment
(representative learning)

Question 9

Content: Variability of Practice

Answer 9

Varying key parameters of the movement patterns used to perform a motor skill

Question 10

Variability of practice hypothesis:
variable practice =

Answer 10

better retention and transfer

Question 11

Part-whole practice

Answer 11

Common teaching strategy
for early learners to break
skill down into parts (task
decomposition)
e.g Swimming – leg kick, arm
stroke, glide, turns, etc.

Question 12

Part whole practice may …

Answer 12

May break important
perception-action couplings!

Task simplification better

Question 13

Task difficulty

Answer 13

Changing task difficulty influences practice effectiveness

Question 14

Difficulty should be modified

Answer 14

meet the demands of the task for
the learner optimally

This is the basis of ‘Challenge
Point’ framework

Question 15

Massed

Answer 15

(concentrated, frequent): longer practice sessions and many practice trials

Question 16

Distributed

Answer 16

(dispersed, less frequent): shorter practice sessions and fewer practice trials

Question 17

Massed practice may result in

Answer 17

Fatigue
Reduced cognitive effort
Less time for memory consolidation

Question 18

Continuous skills usually benefit from

Answer 18

distributed practice

Question 19

Massed practice compared to distributed

Answer 19

Massed practice depressses performance and Shorter practice sessions spread out (Distributed) are more effective than longer
ones bunched together

Question 20

Contextual Interference
High

Answer 20

Random order of
trials of all task
variations

Question 21

Contextual Interference
Medium

Answer 21

Random repetition of
short blocks of trials of
each task variation

Serial repetition of
short blocks of trials of
each task variation

Question 22

Contextual Interference
Low

Answer 22

Non repeated blocks of
trials of each task
variation

Question 23

Practice Consolidation Strategies

What you do after practice influences learning effectiveness

Answer 23

Tasks undertaken after practice can interfere with or augment
learning

Question 24

 Emerging research field suggesting that sleep

Answer 24

soon after practice
(5-7 hrs) helps learning

Question 25

It is thought that sleep helps to

Answer 25

consolidate neural processes
underlying skill acquisition

Question 26

Some portable brain stimulation devices have
been marketed as

Answer 26

“learning-enhancing”

Question 27

‘accelerated’ learning

Answer 27

Demonstrations, blocked,
massed, explicit practice