Structure and Organizing Practice II Flashcards
Scheduled Practise - Massed vs Distributed
Massed practise: A practice schedule
in which the amount of rest between
trials or sessions is brief
-Discrete and Serial tasks
-Low cognitive demand
Distributed Practice: A practice
schedule in which the amount of rest
between trials or sessions is long
-Continuous tasks
- High cognitive demand
The most effective practice schedule varies with the task being learned
Organizing Practice Over a Series of Sessions
It’s important to listen but you’re the expert on what works best for you
May have to trade off the efficiency
and effectiveness of practice
1hr/day 60 days had highest learning efficiency (best in practise)
2hr/day best retaining/ learning
Rest intervals Influence how Humans
Learn a Continuous Motor Task
Longer rest periods often lead to improved performance during
practice
Longer breaks = better retention
Differences in learning are generally reduced at retention.
Positive effect of rest still evident at retention
Shortest rest breaks also produced smallest learning and retention effects
Blocked practise
All trials of a given task or skill are
completed before moving to a new task or skill
- New acquisition each one
Serial Practise
Less important, doing all at once then repeat over and over
Random practise
Random Practice: Individuals practice different skills in random order during
practice session
All tasks done in different order each time
Does Random or Blocked Practice Produce Better Performance During Practice
In practise, Blocked group outperformed Random group during practice
-short period of time, can apply errors learned but random cannot
Is Random or Blocked Practice Better for Retention
In long run, Random group
outperformed blocked group
during random retention
Random group outperformed
blocked group during blocked
retention ( in all aspects)
Summary
Take-Home Message:
1.Blocked practice improves
performance during practice.
- Random practice improves how much learning we retain
Random practice requires the learner to be engaged because variants or elements of the task practiced
change constantly
Random practice provides meaningful and distinguishable motor memories of various tasks. This increases the strength of motor memories and how
well they are retained
Random practice forces learners to forget short-term solutions after each change in task.
Short-term forgetting forces the learner to generate a “new” solution for each movement
Motor Forgetting – Modeling Can Remove Motor Forgetting and Cause Improved Retention
Modeling reduced differences in performance between blocked and
random practice groups
Too much modeling can be bad for learning and retention
Random practice tends to cause best retention despite lower performance
in practice
Constant vs Varied
Constant Practice: A practice schedule in which individuals practice one variation of a skill repeatedly before moving to next skill
- good at hitting a target
- good for skill
Variable Practice: A practice sequence where different variations of the same skill are practiced in a random order
- can learn distance to force ratio
-good for broad learning
Variable practice allows us to learn the basic mapping between a parameter (e.g., force) and resulting action (e.g., throwing distance)
Summary of Different Practice Schedules
Blocked and random
MOTOR ACQUISITION/NEW SKILL
* Different skills
* Random practice provides slower improvements in performance but seems to facilitate long-term learning
* Blocked practice shows more success during learning which may help confidence (typically less retention though)
Constant and varied
MOTOR ADAPTATION
-Variations of the same skill
* Varied practice aids in retention of motor learning, but may hinder performance on the short term
* Constant practice is beneficial for special skills (e.g., free throw shooting)
