scholarly journals On the cognitive processes underlying contextual interference: Contributions of practice schedule, task similarity and amount of practice

2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 910-920 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Boutin ◽  
Yannick Blandin
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Meysam Beik ◽  
Hamidreza Taheri ◽  
Alireza Saberi Kakhki ◽  
Majid Ghoshuni

1997 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. Shewokis

The benefits of learning multiple tasks under an unstructured practice schedule have been extensively demonstrated in the laboratory. The purpose of the present study was to test contextual interference effects in a nonlaboratory setting using computer games as tasks. Undergraduate kinesiology and sport management majors ( N=19) played a computer game simulating the events of the winter Olympics. Participants were randomly assigned to either a Blocked or Random practice schedule, practicing 36 trials of three events. Delayed retention and transfer tests were performed after a 48-hr. retention interval. The dependent variable was time to complete an event. During transfer, participants in the Random schedule ( M = 248 sec.) were significantly faster than Blocked ( M = 263 sec.) participants. Results support and extend previous contextual interference findings. Transfer was facilitated for participants who learned the events in a Random practice order. Results are discussed in terms of the influence of task characteristics on learning.


1992 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 555-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Bortoli ◽  
Claudio Robazza ◽  
Valter Durigon ◽  
Carlo Carra

The effects of contextual interference on learning skills of volleyball (volley, bump, serve) are influenced by the scheduling of actual practice sessions: the activities can be proposed in a repetitive practice schedule (blocked practice) by continuously repeating the same task (low interference) or in random practice schedules by performing more tasks or variations of one same activity (high interference). High contextual interference, even though causing immediate limited performance, leads to superior performance on retention and transfer tests. Four experimental groups (13 students each) were placed in conditions of random, blocked, serial, and serial with high interference practice for 8 meetings (2 tests and 6 practice). Analysis yielded significant differences among the groups on a transfer test (long transfer) for the serve, so results in this instructional setting are partially in line with those generally found in laboratory experiments.


1989 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Del Rey ◽  
Deborah Stewart

An investigation was conducted with mildly mentally retarded subjects to investigate memory and transfer performance on a coincident timing task using 6- to 17-year-olds. Battig’s (1979) methodological and theoretical views on contextual interference were employed. Blocked and random practice schedules were administered during acquisition trials. In addition, a third acquisition group was created, identified as “sequenced,” which was characterized as a type of experimenter imposed strategy. This manipulation represented a practice schedule between blocked and random. The effects of these three practice schedules were investigated regarding their influence on retention and transfer. Support was found in retention for random acquisition and sequencing practice schedules. The use of strategic processes was viewed to have a positive impact on the retention of mentally retarded children and adolescents but the information was not transferable.


2001 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-264
Author(s):  
Tal Jarus ◽  
Tzipi Gutman

This experiment was designed to investigate the effect of cognitive problem-solving operations (termed contextual interference) and complexity of tasks on the acquisition retention and transfer of motor skills. Ninety-six children, ages 7.5-9.5 practised the task of throwing beanbags under either low contextual interference (blocked practice), high contextual interference (random practice) or medium contextual interference (combined practice). Half of the participants acquired a complex task and the other half a simple task. All participants performed 30 acquisition trials, 9 retention trials and 4 transfer trials. Results indicated that participants who practised in the blocked practice group did not differ in their performance whether they acquired complex or simple tasks. On the other hand, participants from the random and combined practice groups who acquired simple tasks performed better than those who acquired complex tasks. These findings support the hypothesis that there is a limit to the interference during practice that will benefit retention and transfer, thus creating the contextual interference effect. It seems that the complex-task condition combined with random or combined practice schedule increased the difficulty of acquisition, possibly impeding the cognitive processing during acquisition, thus impairing the learning process.


1992 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 627-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy D. Lee ◽  
Gabriele Wulf ◽  
Richard A. Schmidt

The contextual interference effect in motor learning refers to the interference that results from practising a task within the concept of other tasks in a practice session. Several studies have shown that practice under conditions of high contextual interference (i.e. with a random practice order) degrades performance during acquisition trials, compared to low contextual interference conditions (i.e. with a blocked order, where practice is completed on one task before practice on another task is undertaken). In contrast to acquisition performance, random practice usually leads to more effective learning than blocked practice, as measured by retention and transfer tests. One of the hypotheses regarding the effect suggests that a random practice schedule induces more extensive planning operations during practice than a blocked practice condition. If so, then differences between these two conditions should emerge to the degree that the set of tasks requires complete reconstruction of these planning operations on each trial. To address this issue, we compared four groups of subjects: a blocked and random group that practised three timing tasks that shared a common characteristic (same relative timing), and a blocked and random group that practised three tasks that each had different relative timing structures. Subjects practised these tasks on each of two days, with a retention test and two transfer tests that required either a relative timing structure that had been practised previously or had not previously been practised. No random/ blocked differences occurred regardless of the relative timing of the patterns during acquisition or retention. However, for both transfer tests, random practice enhanced learning only for the group that had practised with tasks that each had different relative timing during acquisition. Implications of these results for an explanation of contextual interference are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristy V. Dang ◽  
Darius E. Parvin ◽  
Richard B. Ivry

AbstractThe classic advice given to anyone learning a new skill is “practice makes perfect.” While this provides a good general rule to follow, it lacks any detail on what form of practice will efficiently maximize learning. So when faced with the task of acquiring multiple skills, what is the optimal way to learn? Would it be more beneficial to master each skill separately or learn them all at once in an interleaved fashion? A concept known as contextual interference suggests that using a random practice schedule leads to better retention than a blocked one. There are some motor learning studies that are consistent with this hypothesis and some that are not. In order to explore these conflicting results, we applied contextual interference to a simple reaching task that could allow us to observe its effects to various components of motor learning. We had participants learn three different visuomotor rotations and manipulated interference by placing them in groups characterized by how training targets are ordered (blocked vs. random). Using reaction time and hand angle as our measures of performance, we found that participants who experienced a random practice schedule had significant improvements in their ability to retain information, which was manifest as higher levels of implicit adaptation and faster reaction times. However, this did not necessarily mean the information was executed accurately since hand angles did not differ between groups. These findings suggest contextual interference will be most advantageous in situations that require fast explicit recall of a motor plan to use rather than those that emphasize accuracy.


1989 ◽  
Vol 68 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1055-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Otto Jelsma ◽  
Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer

In the present study, interactions of contextual interference and the cognitive style reflection-impulsivity were examined for training and retention performance. 64 subjects were randomly assigned to either a random or blocked practice schedule in learning a cursor-movement task. Reflectivity indices were determined by means of our computerized version of the Matching Familiar Figures Test. Analysis showed that the generally positive effect of practicing under a random practice schedule decreased for more reflective subjects. Further, training under a random practice schedule forced impulsive subjects to behave more like reflective ones, which improved their performance at retention. It was concluded that reflection-impulsivity is an important factor to be incorporated into the design of effective training programs.


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