Practice Scheduling

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Practice Scheduling

• Emily H. Wughalter, Ed.D.
• Kin 266

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A short chronology

• Adams (1971) closed loop theory of motor
  learning
• Schmidts Criticisms of Adams theory
• Storage
• Novelty
• Gentiles theory of motor learning (1972)
• Schmidts (1975) theory of motor learning
• Battigs (1979) theory of contextual interference
• John Shea and colleagues
• Tim Lee and colleagues

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Novelty

• The transfer of a skill represents the ability
  to carry over procedures used to produce one
  skill in order to produce a new motor skill.
  Essentially, because we live in a dynamic
  environment we require varying amounts of
  transfer even when performing the same skill
  twice.

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Storage

• Criticisms were advanced regarding storage of
  motor plans and motor programs.
• Motor learning and control theorists questioned
  the very nature of movement representation as
  hypothesized by Adams.
• Adams (1971) hypothesized the storage of
  individual templates for each motor program as
  well as information related to the error
  detection and correction device.

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Initial Conditions
Desired Outcome
Past Actual Outcomes
Past Sensory Consequences
Past Response Specifications
Recognition Schema
Recall Schema
Expected Sensory Consequences
Response Specifications
Schmidt (1975). A schema theory of discrete
motor learning. Psychological Review, 82,
225-260.
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Schmidts Schema Theory (1975)

• Schmidts theory is a response to Adams theory
• The Schema model is designed to overcome the
  problems of novelty and storage inhabited in
  Adams model.

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Schema

• A schema is a generalized abstraction for a
  movement class. A generalized motor program
  provides specific parameters that can be used to
  govern movement for a specific situation.

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Schema Development

• According to Schmidt (1975) four things are
  stored for schema formation.
• initial conditions
• response specifications (motor program commands)
• sensory consequences of the response produced
• outcome of the movement

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Variability of Practice Hypothesis

• Paradigm
• Constant Practice Group bbbbbbbbb// bbb
• Variable Practice Group aaacccddd//bbb
• Note The transfer task must be within the range
  of the originally practiced materials.

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Levels of ProcessingCraik Lockhart (1972)

• Meaningfulness
• Familiarity
• Compatibility
• Elaboration
• Encoding/Retrieval Specificity
• Distinctiveness

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Battigs Contextual Interference Theory (1979)

• Contextual interference is caused by the dynamic
  conditions created by the intrinsic and extrinsic
  factors related to the tasks or skills being
  learned. In the motor behavior literature
  scholars have operationalized this concept as
  blocked and random practice.

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Operationalization of Contextual Interference

• Paradigm used by Shea Morgan (1979)
• BL aaabbbccc //bac
• RA acbcabbca//cba
• Retention was measured 10 minutes and 10 days
  later. Transfer was measured on a more difficult
  and less difficult transfer task.

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Hypothetical model of Battigs Contextual
Interference Effect
Total Time Sec
Blocked
Random
Acquisition Recognition
TEST SESSION
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Results from Shea Morgan (1979)
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Lee Magill (1983)Paradigm

• ACQUISITION
• Blocked AAA BBB CCC
• Serial ABC ABC ABC
• Random CAB BCA CBA
• RETENTION
• BL/RA AAABBBCCC BACBCACAB
• RA/BL BACBCACAB AAABBBCCC

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Explanations for the Contextual Interference
Effect

• Action Plan Reconstruction Lee (1987) and Lee
  and Magill (1983, 1985) proposed that forgetting
  from short-term or working memory occurs between
  trials and thus reconstruction of the action plan
  occurs trial after trial.
• Elaboration and Distinctiveness Shea and Zimny
  (1983, 1988) explained the contextual
  interference effect through a processing view in
  which multiple and varied processing strategies
  are used in short-term or working memory. Thus
  processing in a random condition forces more
  elaborate and distinctive traces than a blocked
  condition
• Retroactive Inhibition The retroactive
  inhibition literature (Meeusen, 1987) helps to
  explain the contextual interference effect
  through a discussion of the implications of
  blocked practice on retention and transfer.