The Role of Interference and Task Similarity on the Acquisition,Retention, and Transfer of Simple Motor Skills |
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Authors: | Carol A Wood Carol A Ging |
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Institution: | 1. Program of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance , University of Pittsburgh , USA;2. Resident Programs , Allegheny Valley School , Pittsburgh , PA , USA |
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Abstract: | Abstract The aim of the present study was to determine if two levels of task similarity influenced acquisition, retention, and transfer performance of three simple motor skills. Sixty right-handed subjects were randomly assigned to one of five (n = 12) experimental conditions. Each subject performed 72 trials during acquisition. Twenty-four trials were recorded for each movement task. Following a 5-min unfilled retention interval, subjects performed 4 trials on each task before completing 12 transfer trials of a novel movement. Contextual interference effects for acquisition and retention were supported for low but not high similarity tasks. Further, the results suggest that a different memory representation exists for high and low similarity tasks. |
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Keywords: | contextual interference High similarity tasks Low similarity tasks Acquisition rate |
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