The Amount and Distribution of Practice

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Chapter 17

• The Amount and Distribution of Practice

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Overlearning and Learning Motor Skills

• Overlearning Continuation of practice beyond the
  amount needed to achieve a certain performance
  criterion
• Research has shown that overlearning can have a
  positive influence on retention performance for
  motor learning skills (Driskell et al., 1992)

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Examples of Overlearning Strategy Applied to
Types of 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.,
  assembling a rifle
• U.S. Army sponsored research found 100
  overlearning strategy effective for long-term
  retention
• Dynamic balance skills
• Research has found point of diminishing returns
  for amount of extra practice
• 50 as effective as 100 and 200
• Physical education class setting
• One study reported student-determined extra
  practice resulted in better learning than
  teacher-determined extra practice these settings

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Examples of Overlearning Strategy Applied to
Types of 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.,
  assembling a rifle
• U.S. Army sponsored research found 100
  overlearning strategy effective for long-term
  retention
• Dynamic balance skills
• Research has found point of diminishing returns
  for amount of extra practice
• 50 as effective as 100 and 200
• Physical education class setting
• One study reported student-determined extra
  practice resulted in better learning than
  teacher-determined extra practice these settings

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Examples of Overlearning Strategy Applied to
Types of 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.,
  assembling a rifle
• U.S. Army sponsored research found 100
  overlearning strategy effective for long-term
  retention
• Dynamic balance skills
• Research has found point of diminishing returns
  for amount of extra practice
• 50 as effective as 100 and 200
• Physical education class setting
• One study reported student-determined extra
  practice resulted in better learning than
  teacher-determined extra practice these settings

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Overlearning Strategy Can Lead toPoor Learning

• 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)
• What would account for these types of results?
• Extended practice of relatively simple skills
  resulted in learners not continuing to engage in
  appropriate amounts of cognitive effort (Lee et
  al., 1994)
• Extended practice of the same relatively simple
  movement results in decreased capability to
  remember the movement as well as to transfer to a
  movement variation
• Indicates need for practice variability

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Overlearning Strategy Can Lead toPoor Learning

• 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)
• What would account for these types of results?
• Extended practice of relatively simple skills
  resulted in learners not continuing to engage in
  appropriate amounts of cognitive effort (Lee et
  al., 1994)
• Extended practice of the same relatively simple
  movement results in decreased capability to
  remember the movement as well as to transfer to a
  movement variation
• Indicates need for practice variability

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Overlearning Strategy Can Lead toPoor Learning

• 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)
• What would account for these types of results?
• Extended practice of relatively simple skills
  resulted in learners not continuing to engage in
  appropriate amounts of cognitive effort (Lee et
  al., 1994)
• Extended practice of the same relatively simple
  movement results in decreased capability to
  remember the movement as well as to transfer to a
  movement variation
• Indicates need for practice variability

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Distribution of Practice

• The practice distribution problem
• You have a specific amount of time to practice
  or for rehab 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?
• The length of rest intervals between trials
  during each practice session?

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Two Types of Practice Distribution Schedules

• Massed Practice
• Sessions
• Longer and fewer
• Between-Trial Rest Intervals
• None to very short

• Distributed Practice
• Sessions
• Shorter and more
• Between-Trial Rest Intervals
• Longer than massed practice length

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Distribution of Practice for Practice Sessions

• Research shows that practice sessions can be too
  long and infrequent to lead to optimal learning
• Better learning results when people practice
  skills in more frequent and shorter practice
  sessions
• See experiments by
• Baddeley Longman (1978)
• Dail Christina (2004)

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Practice Schedule hours

• 1 hr/session 1 session/day
• (12 weeks training) 55
• 1 hr/session 2 sessions/day
• (6 weeks training) 75
• 2 hr/session 1 session/day
• ( 6 weeks training) 67
• 2 hr/session 2 sessions/day
• (3 weeks training) 80

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Why Distributed Practice Sessions Are Better for
Learning

• Three hypotheses
• Fatigue hypothesis
• Cognitive effort hypothesis
• Memory consolidation hypothesis

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Distribution of Practice for Intertrial Intervals

• Practice distribution schedule that is best for
  learning depends on type of skill (Lee
  Genovese, 1988, 1989)
• Continuous motor skills
• Distributed schedules more effective than massed
• Discrete motor skills
• Massed schedules more effective than distributed