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Chapter 17 The Amount and Distribution of Practice Concept: The amount of practice and the spacing or distribution of that practice can affect both practice performance and learning of motor skills. Chapter 17 deals with the amount and distribution of practice. This concept is important for the instructor because the amount of practice and the spacing (or distribution of that practice) can affect both practice performance and learning of motor skills. KIN 377 – Motor Control & Learning | Ovande Furtado, Jr., Ph.D. Magill, R., & Anderson, D. (2013). Motor Learning and Control: Concepts and Applications: Tenth Edition. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Objectives Describe how an overlearning practice strategy influences the learning of procedural skills and dynamic balance skills; Describe how the concept of practice distribution is related to the length and distribution of practice sessions; Discuss evidence supporting the benefit of distributing practice sessions and possible reasons for this benefit; Describe how to implement knowledge of massed and distributed practice in various skill learning situations.

Application Is more practice better? The “more practice is better” approach is not always beneficial for learning. Important to decide about: the mount of time to devote to each activity in a session the length of each session; and the amount of time between sessions In discussing this topic a question arises, which is: is more practice better? Well, (the more practice is better approach) is not always beneficial for learning. There are important things to consider when designing practice schedules.

Overlearning and Learning Motor Skills Continuation of practice beyond the amount needed to achieve a certain performance criterion. The instructor must: Establish a performance criterion; Provide the learner time to achieve it; Devote a percentage of that time as extra practice. Research has shown that overlearning can have a positive influence on the retention of motor skills. … but there are some exceptions Have you heard of the concept called “overlearning”? It refers to continuation of practice beyond the amount needed to achieve a certain performance criterion This is an important concept when teaching motor skills. Typically, overlearning results in better learning, but this is not always the case.

Overlearning and Learning Motor Skills Procedural skills Skills that include a combination of cognitive and motor components and require performance of a series of relatively simple movements, e.g., typing Performer must know which movements to make and in what order. Performer tends to forget the order in which movements have to be performed. You might need extra time if the goal is to learn the skill depicted in the video shown in the next slide. Overlearning is especially helpful when the goal is to learn a procedural skill. Procedural skills are those skills that include a combination of cognitive and motor components and require performance of a series of relatively simple movements. Watch the video in the next slide for an of a procedural skill.

Procedural Skills This is an example of a procedural skill. Notice that it involves a combination of cognitive and motor components. The cognitive aspect of the skill involves remembering the sequence of movements to be performed. And of course, the motor component is the action of performing the sequence.

Overlearning and Learning Motor Skills Procedural skills U.S. Army sponsored research found that: overlearning strategy (100% more trials) was effective for long-term retention for assembling and disassembling machine guns. How about other skills? Dance A stroke patient relearning a skill (getting out of a wheelchair) Here’s a research study, which was conducted to investigate the effect of overpractice on learning a procedural skill. The researchers compared two forms of overtraining with a no-overtraining situation. An “immediate” overtraining condition required soldiers to perform 100 percent more trials than were necessary to achieve a performance criterion of one correct assembly or disassembly trial. The second overtraining condition also involved an additional 100 percent more practice trials, but these trials were administered as “refresher” training, midway through the 8 week retention interval used for all subjects. Results showed that both of these overtraining groups performed better than the no overtraining control group on the retention test, which required the soldiers to practice until they were again able to assemble and disassemble the gun correctly on a trial. However, the two overtraining groups did not differ from each other in the number of trials it took to retrain to the criterion performance of one correct trial.

Overlearning and Learning Motor Skills Dynamic balance skills (less cognitive in nature) Melnick (1971) Balance on a stadiometer Extra practice was beneficial; What is the optional amount of extra practice? 50%, 100% or 200% of the initial number of trials? Melnick (1971) Found a “point diminishing returns” for amount of extra practice. What is this? 50% was as effective as 100% and 200% Here’s another study, but this time involving a skill considered less cognitive in nature. In this experiment, people practiced balancing on a stadiometer until they were able to achieve a performance criterion of 28 out of 50 seconds. After achieving this criterion, each group was required to perform further trials in one of the following amounts: 0 percent (none), 50 percent, 100 percent, or 200 percent of the initial number of trials of practice. Then, all participants performed a retention test twice, one week and then one month after practice. The results showed that extra practice was helpful. All the groups that engaged in practice beyond what they needed to achieve the performance criterion performed better on the retention tests. More interesting, however, was the result that there appeared to be a point of diminishing returns for the amount of retention performance benefit in relation to the amount of extra practice. The group that had 50 percent additional practice did as well on the retention tests as the groups that had 100 percent, and 200 percent extra practice. So, although additional practice was helpful, increasing the amount of additional practice beyond a certain amount was not proportionally more helpful to retention performance.

Overlearning and Learning Motor Skills Dynamic balance skills (less cognitive in nature) Physical therapy (Kwakkel and Wagenaar, 2002) Providing additional PT sessions each day during a 5-day - per-week (20 weeks) did not result in additional benefits beyond a certain amount for stroke patients. Not a balance skill Take home message: be reasonable when designing practice schedules.

Overlearning and Learning Motor Skills Research has shown situations in which learning deficits resulted from excessive practice, i.e., too much overlearning: See experiments by Shea & Kohl (1990, 1991); Travlos (1999) > see graph ahead

Travlos (1999) Similarly, Travlos (1999) reported that increasing the amount of practice beyond a certain number of trials resulted in poorer transfer test performance. In this experiment, participants attempted to learn the distance of a horizontal line, by touching a digitizing tablet with a stylus at locations they estimated to be the beginning and end of the line. Although they could not see their movements, the participants received knowledge of results (KR) about their estimate in terms of the distance it deviated from the 8 in. (this was the criterion). Five groups experienced different amounts of practice: 42, 77, 102, 127, and 152 trials. At the end of practice, they performed a transfer test for 5 trials. This test required them to estimate the horizontal length of a 10 inches line. The results, which you can see in this slide, shows that, at the end of practice, all groups performed similarly. However, performance on the transfer test was very much influenced by the amount of practice. Those who practiced the task for 77 and 102 trials performed the transfer test with less error than the other practice groups. Interestingly, 42 practice trials were two few, but 127 and 152 trials were too many; additional practice beyond 102 trials led to decrement in transfer test performance rather than an enhancement of it.

Overlearning and Learning Motor Skills Why would more practice led to poorer retention and transfer test performance than less practice in the Travlos (1999) study ? Because skills were too simple…learners: reduced the amount of attention required to improve performance; ceased to engage in optimal amounts of cognitive effort Lack of practice variability Why would more practice lead to poorer retention and transfer test performance than less practice in the Travlos 1999 study ? It could be speculated that participants of the study: 1) reduced the amount of attention required to improve performance; 2) ceased to engage in optimal amounts of cognitive effort It could also be due to the lack of practice variability. This is the same concept we studied in a previous chapter.

Overlearning and other practice variables Skill Acquisition Amount of practice Type and Freqcy of AF Practice Variability Practice Distribution Notice that the amount of practice is NOT the critical variable influencing motor skill acquisition. One has to consider other principles of learning, such as type and frequency of augmented feedback, practice variability, etc.

Distribution of Practice You have a specific amount of time to practice for a future “test”: What is the best way to schedule the available time in terms of: the length and frequency of the practice sessions? Here’s a question for you. Please, pause this presentation and the write down the answer. Find the answer in the next slide.

Distribution of Practice What is the best way to schedule the available time in terms of: the length and frequency of the practice sessions? If a 30min session, YOU COULD: 30min without stopping (15min | 15min) (10min | 10min | 10min) (5min | 5min | 5min | 5min | 5min | 5min)

Two Types of Practice Distribution Schedules Massed Practice Distributed Practice Longer and fewer sessions None to very short between-trial rests Shorter and greater number of sessions Between-trial rest Intervals longer than for massed practice Note the inherent problem when investigating practice distribution questions. There is no objective definitions of the terms “massed” and “distributed”. However, if we use the previous example, the 30min session, without stopping would be considered a type of massed practice, when compared to, for instance, the three other types of practice schedules (the 15, 10, and 5 minute sessions).

Shea et al. (2000) Here’s a study conducted to investigate the effect of distributing practice sessions in multiple days, in this case: 2 days, compared to 1-day acquisition. One group participated in two practice sessions on one day, and another group participated in one session on each of the two days. The graph in this slide shows the amount of balance error for each 90 second trial, on a continuous dynamic balance task. We can conclude from the graph that the 1-day acquisition group (massed practice schedule) committed more errors compared to the 2-day acquisition group (distributed practice schedule).

Dail & Christina (2004) Here’s another study, but this time using golf putting. In this study, 2 groups practiced putting a golf ball, either in 240 trials in 1 day, or in 4 days (60 trials each day). We conclude from the graph that the group that practice in 4 days (distributed practice), scored better at the end of practice, and on two retention tests. Remember that in golf, the lower the score, the better.

Distribution of Practice Better learning results when people practice skills in more frequent and shorter practice sessions, This is true for: Open and closed skills How about discrete and continuous skills? Discrete > Massed practice is better (not common) Continuous > Distributed practice is better Unfortunately, there is no specific number and length of practice… but Shorter and more practice sessions can be used as a general rule when planning practice, training, or rehabilitation sessions.

Why Are Distributed Practice Sessions Better for Learning? Three Hypotheses Fatigue hypothesis Cognitive effort hypothesis Memory consolidation hypothesis

Why Are Distributed Practice Sessions Better for Learning? Fatigue hypothesis Affects learning in massed practice schedules Specially, but limited to, continuous skills

Why Are Distributed Practice Sessions Better for Learning? Cognitive effort hypothesis Becomes monotonous and boring Decreases the amount of cognitive effort in each trial Diminishes the level of learning

Why Are Distributed Practice Sessions Better for Learning? Three Hypotheses Memory consolidation hypothesis (Long-term memory) For relatively permanent memory representation to occur Certain neuro-biochemical processes must occur Requires a certain amount of time w/out additional practice of the same skill

Overlearning and other practice variables Skill Acquisition Amount of practice Type and Freqcy of AF Practice Variability Practice Distribution Shorter and more practice sessions can be used a general rule when planning practice, training, or rehabilitation sessions.

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