On the Effect of Practice on Exploration and Exploitation of Options and Strategies

Insufficient exploration of one’s surroundings is at the root of many real-life problems, as demonstrated by many famous biases (e.g., the status quo bias, learned helplessness). The current work focuses on the emergence of this phenomenon at the strategy level: the tendency to under-explore the set of available choice strategies. We demonstrate that insufficient exploration of strategies can also manifest as excessive exploration between options. In such cases, interventions aimed at improving choices by reducing the costs of exploration of options are likely to fail. In Study 1, participants faced an exploration task that implies an infinite number of choice strategies and a small sub-set of (near) optimal solutions. We manipulated the amount of practice participants underwent during the first, shorter game and compared their performance in a second, longer game with an identical payoff structure. Our results show that regardless of the amount of practice, participants in all experimental groups tended to under-explore the strategy space and relied on a specific strategy that implied over-exploration of the option space. That is, under-exploration of strategies was manifested as over-exploration of options. In Study 2, we added a constraint that, on a subset of practice trials, forced participants to exploit familiar options. This manipulation almost doubled the per-trial average outcome on the comparable longer second game. This suggests that forcing participants to experience the effects of different (underexplored) strategy components during practice can greatly increase the chance they make better choices later on.

Application of the Challenge Point Framework During Treatment of Speech Sound Disorders

Purpose The purpose of this article is to provide trial-by-trial practice performance data in relation to learning (outcome probe data) as collected from 18 treatment sessions provided to children with severe speech sound disorders. The data illustrate the practice–learning paradox: Specific, perfect practice performance is not required for speech production learning. Method We detailed how nine student speech-language pathologists (SSLPs) implemented and modified the motor learning practice conditions to reach a proposed challenge point during speech practice. Eleven participants diagnosed with a severe speech sound disorder received high-intensity speech therapy 3 times per week for 6 weeks. SSLPs implemented treatment procedures with the goal of achieving at least 100 practice trials while manipulating practice parameters to maintain practice at the challenge point. Specifically, child performance was monitored for accuracy in five-trial increments, and practice parameters were changed to increase functional task difficulty when the child's performance was high (four or five correct responses) or to decrease functional task difficulty when the child's performance was low (fewer than four correct responses). The practice stimulus, type and amount of feedback, structure of practice, or level of support might be changed to ensure practice at the challenge point. Results On average, the children achieved 102 practice trials per session at a level of 58% correct responses. Fast achievement of connected speech with the lowest amount of support was associated with high scores on generalization probes. Even with high levels of error during practice, the children improved percent consonants correct with maintenance of learning 3 months posttreatment. Conclusion The results of this study show that it may not be necessary to overpractice or maintain a high degree of performance accuracy during treatment sessions to achieve transfer and retention of speech production learning.

Differentiating Laparoscopic Skills of Trainees with Computer Vision Based Metrics

Context dependent gaze metrics, derived from eye movements explicitly associated with how a task is being performed, are particularly useful for formative assessment that includes feedback on specific behavioral adjustments for skill acquisitions. In laparoscopic surgery, context dependent gaze metrics are under investigated and commonly derived by either qualitatively inspecting the videos frame by frame or mapping the fixations onto a static surgical task field. This study collected eye-tracking and video data from 13 trainees practicing the peg transfer task. Machine learning algorithms in computer vision were employed to derive metrics of tool speed, fixation rate on (moving or stationary) target objects, and fixation rate on tool-object combination. Preliminary results from a clustering analysis on the measurements from 499 practice trials indicated that the metrics were able to differentiate three skill levels amongst the trainees, suggesting high sensitivity and potential of context dependent gaze metrics for surgical assessment.

EXPRESS: Practice and Transfer with Mappings of Spoon Tip and Handle to Keypress Responses

When orientation of a horizontal spoon image varies to the left or right, instructions can map left and right keypresses to the tip or handle location. We conducted Experiment 1 to determine whether practice with an incompatible mapping of the salient tip transfers to a test session in which the relevant part and/or mapping are changed. Participants performed 80 practice trials with tip-incompatible mapping, followed by 80 test trials with tip-compatible, tip-incompatible, handle-compatible, or handle-incompatible mapping. Performance improved across 20-trial blocks in the practice session. In the test session, responses were 65-ms faster with tip-compatible than tip-incompatible mapping but 31-ms faster with handle-incompatible than handle-compatible mapping. This latter result, and verbal reports, indicate that some participants adopted a strategy of responding compatibly to the salient tip even though instructed to respond to the handle. Experiment 2 focused on whether participants with handle-incompatible mapping instructions would adopt the tip-compatible strategy spontaneously or after receiving a hint. 77% of participants reported adopting the tip-compatible strategy in session 1, showing that prior experience responding to the tip is not necessary. 9% of participants did not report using that strategy in session 1 but reported changing to it in session 2 after receiving the hint. Their responses in session 2 were slower than those who used the strategy throughout, but this difference was minimal in the last two trial blocks. Compatible mapping of the salient spoon tip to keypresses dominated performance over prior practice with incompatible tip mapping and instructions with incompatible handle mapping.

Full, partial and modified permutations of the Mayo Score: Characterizing clinical and patient-reported outcomes in ulcerative colitis patients

Background Understanding ulcerative colitis (UC) disease activity assessed via the full, modified or partial Mayo Score may help clinicians apply results from clinical trials to practice and facilitate interpretation of recent and older studies. Methods Mayo Score variables were assessed in a cross-sectional study of 2608 UC patients. Results Permutations of Mayo Scores were highly correlated, and models predicting the omitted variable from each permutation demonstrated significant agreement between predicted and observed values. Conclusions Partial/modified Mayo Scores may be used to predict endoscopic and Physician's Global Assessment scores, and serve as proxies for the full Mayo Score in clinical practice/trials.

How the wisdom of crowds, and of the crowd within, are affected by expertise

We investigated the effect of expertise on the wisdom of crowds. Participants completed 60 trials of a numerical estimation task, during which they saw 50–100 asterisks and were asked to estimate how many stars they had just seen. Experiment 1 established that both inner- and outer-crowd wisdom extended to our novel task: Single responses alone were less accurate than responses aggregated across a single participant (showing inner-crowd wisdom) and responses aggregated across different participants were even more accurate (showing outer-crowd wisdom). In Experiment 2, prior to beginning the critical trials, participants did 12 practice trials with feedback, which greatly increased their accuracy. There was a benefit of outer-crowd wisdom relative to a single estimate. There was no inner-crowd wisdom effect, however; with high accuracy came highly restricted variance, and aggregating insufficiently varying responses is not beneficial. Our data suggest that experts give almost the same answer every time they are asked and so they should consult the outer crowd rather than solicit multiple estimates from themselves.

Optimizing practice scheduling requires quantitative tracking of individual item performance

Decades of research has shown that spacing practice trials over time can improve later memory, but there are few concrete recommendations concerning how to optimally space practice. We show that existing recommendations are inherently suboptimal due to their insensitivity to time costs and individual- and item-level differences. We introduce an alternative approach that optimally schedules practice with a computational model of spacing in tandem with microeconomic principles. We simulated conventional spacing schedules and our adaptive model-based approach. Simulations indicated that practicing according to microeconomic principles of efficiency resulted in substantially better memory retention than alternatives. The simulation results provided quantitative estimates of optimal difficulty that differed markedly from prior recommendations but still supported a desirable difficulty framework. Experimental results supported simulation predictions, with up to 40% more items recalled in conditions where practice was scheduled optimally according to the model of practice. Our approach can be readily implemented in online educational systems that adaptively schedule practice and has significant implications for millions of students currently learning with educational technology.

Optimizing Practice Scheduling Requires Quantitative Tracking of Individual Item Performance

Decades of research has shown that spacing practice trials over time can improve later memory, but there are few concrete recommendations concerning how to optimally space practice. We show that existing recommendations are inherently suboptimal due to their insensitivity to time costs and individual- and item-level differences. We introduce an alternative approach that optimally schedules practice with a computational model of spacing in tandem with microeconomic principles. We simulated conventional spacing schedules and our adaptive model-based approach. Simulations indicated that practicing according to microeconomic principles of efficiency resulted in substantially better memory retention than alternatives. The simulation results provided quantitative estimates of optimal difficulty that differed markedly from prior recommendations, but still supported a desirable difficulties framework. Experimental results supported simulation predictions, with up to 40% more items recalled in conditions where practice was scheduled optimally according to the model of practice. Our approach can be readily implemented in online educational systems that adaptively schedule practice, and has significant implications for millions of students currently learning with educational technology.

A Conceptual Model of Perceived Motor Skill Competence, Successful Practice Trials, and Motor Skill Performance in Physical Education

Self-efficacy theory assumes that students’ efficacy beliefs affect their performance through process variables, including behavior, cognition, and affection. The purpose of this study was to utilize self-efficacy theory as a theoretical framework to propose a conceptual model of a mediating relationship among perceived motor skill competence, successful practice trials, and motor skill performance in physical education. In addition, the authors reviewed the literature to provide evidence to support the potential mediating relationship by following the steps recommended by Baron and Kenny. This paper is significant because the authors integrated the literature of motor development/learning and physical education pedagogy to propose a conceptual model where successful practice trials would act as a behavioral mediator through which perceived motor skill competence affects students’ motor skill performance. This conceptual model can guide future research to identify students’ behaviors affecting their skill development, thus helping teachers develop pedagogies to improve motor skill performance in physical education.