(Final Exam) Pt. 8 Organizing and Scheduling Practice

Motivation for Learning:
Intrinsic Motivation

• Concerns the learner’s […] drive

  • e.g. drive to learn a skill

• Determined by three basic needs:

  • […] (control of one’s own destiny)

  • […] (mastery of skill)

  • […] (being accepted within a social context)

• Important to become familiar with every individual and have an understanding of how the acquisition of a motor skill fits into the individual’s needs

• internalized

• Autonomy

• Competence

• Relatedness

Motivation for Learning

• Intrinsic motivation for learning can be influenced in different ways:  1)[…]

  • Learner’s set specific performance goals to enhance motor learning

  • Being encouraged to commit oneself to a specific, challenging goal is strongly motivating

• Goal Setting

Motivation for Learning

• Intrinsic motivation for learning can be influenced in different ways:   2) […]

  • Positive augmented feedback can provide a boost to motor learning, even if the feedback is not entirely true.

• Performance Feedback

Motivation for Learning

• Intrinsic motivation for learning can be influenced in different ways:  

• 3) […]

  • providing some control over the learning environment is a factor thought to influence motivation and enhance learning

• Self-regulation/autonomy

Focusing Attention

• Direct attention resources to specific characteristics

  • in a […] environment

  • or to action - preparation

• […] of the focus

  • broad

  • narrow

• […] of the focus

  • external

  • internal

• performance

• Width

• Direction

Direction of the Focus of Attention

• Internal focus of attention

  • (e.g., monitoring the […] environment)

• ongoing

Direction of the Focus of Attention

• External focus of attention

  • (e.g., a target, or the […] effect of the action)

• intended

Attentional Focus

• For most performers:

  • instructing them to pay attention to the intended result of an action produces […] skilled performance than an

  • instruction to pay attention to aspects of the movement itself

• more

Organizing Practice and Rest Periods

• When designing a program of instruction and scheduling practice you should consider:

  • How many days per week skills should be practiced

  • Whether to provide […] days

  • How much to practice on each [..]

  • How much rest to provided during the practice period to avoid fatigue

• layoff

• day

How Often to Practice

• Consider how often to […]

• Major goal of an instructor is to facilitate maximal learning before the first opportunity to perform skills in a […] situation

• One solution is to provide as much practice as possible beforehand

• However, there is an upper limit as to how much effective learning can occur in one day

• Must understand practice [….] versus […]

• practice

• real

• efficiency

• effectiveness

How often to Practice

• Baddeley and Longman (1978)

  • Retraining postal workers on keyboard tasks under different distributed-practice conditions.

• Practicing 4 h/day was

  • least effective schedule for learning

  • most efficient in terms of total practice days (i.e., fewest number of days spent in practice environment)

Work and Rest Periods During a Practice Session

• […] practice

  • Is a practice schedule in which the amount of rest between practice trials is relatively short

    • E.g. a task has practice trials of 30 seconds in duration, rest may only be 5 seconds between trials

  • In massed practice, the amount of rest between trials is often less than the time for a trial

• […] practice

  • Is a practice schedule in which the duration of rest between practice trials is relatively long

    • The time in practice is often less than the time at rest

    • Concerns with the effects of physical and mental fatigue states on learning effectiveness

• Massed

• Distributed

Work and Rest Periods During Practice

• Bourne & Archer (1956), examined effects of rest intervals of differing length

• Inserted between 30 s periods of practice on a pursuit-rotor task

• Longer rest periods led to […] performance during practice

• Positive effects remains […] on a retention test (i.e., for learning)

• better

• large

Results of the Experiment by Shea et al. (2000)

• The graph shows one group participated in two practice sessions on one day (circles) and another participated in one session on each of two days (squares). The graph shows the amount of balancing error (RMSE, which was calculated as the amount of deviation, in degrees, from horizontal) for each 90-sec trial on a dynamic balance task.

Dail and Christina (2004)

• Two groups practiced putting a golf ball either in 240 trials in one day (massed practice) or in four days of 60 trials each (distributed practice). The graph shows the results (a lower score is better) at the end of the practice trials and during retention tests 1 and seven days later.

Why Are Distributed Practice Sessions Better for Learning?

• Three hypotheses:

  • […] hypothesis.

  • […] hypothesis.

  • […] hypothesis.

• Fatigue

• Cognitive effort

• consolidation

Work and Rest Periods During
a Practice Session

• Type of task was an important variable in determining practice distribution effects for schedules related to the […] of intertrial rest intervals.

• For […] tasks, there is no evidence that reducing the rest time through massed practice degrades learning

  • […] practice may be more effective for discrete skills

• For […] tasks, distribution of practice has both a positive practice and a positive learning effect

  • […] practice is more effective for learning continuous skills

• length

• discrete

• Massed

• continuous

• Distributed

Practice Variability

• […] of practice experiences is important for learning motor skills

• Movement and context features (characteristics) can be varied in practice:

  • […] variations required in “test” condition

    • Overhand vs. underhand vs. sidearm

  • […] context in which the skill is performed

    • Tennis – grass, clay, cement

  • Situations in which the skill occurs

    • Stress? Fatigue?

• Variability

• Skill

• Physical

Variable and Constant Practice

• […] Practice

  • Is a schedule of practice in which many variations of a class of actions are practiced

  • E.g. Practicing different throwing distances in football (10, 15, 20 yards).

• […] practice

  • Is a sequence in which only a single variation of a given class of tasks is experienced

  • E.g. Practicing throwing only 20 yards

• Variable

• Constant

Practice Variability

• Benefits for Future Performance

  • […] variability is better for learning and performance on future ‘test’ situations

  • More variability is (most often) […] than less variability

• Performance […] are beneficial for learning

  • Increased amount of practice variability à increased amount of performance error during practice

• Practice

• better

• errors

Variable vs Constant Practice

• Catalano & Kleiner (1984):

  • […] errors in four coincident-timing retention tests

  • Following practice in either a constant (gray) or variable (blue) practice condition

  • Variable practice led to […] errors than constant practice

• It seems that:

  • Learners more likely to acquire […] when they do variable practice

  • Variable practice enhances […], allowing more effective novel task performance in the future

• Timing

• smaller

• schemas

• development

Practice Variability

• How should the learner/instructor sequence the practice of various task to maximize learning?

  • Organizing Variable Practice

    • […] practice - aaaabbbbcccc

    • […] practice – abcbacabc

      • (Serial practice – cabcabcab)

  • What and how do variables interfere

    • […]

• Blocked

• Random

• Contextual interference (CI)

How to Implement Practice Variability

• Assess characteristics of the future situations in which the learner will perform a skill.

• When people perform skills, they do so in contexts that have identifiable characteristics. (Gentile’s taxonomy)

• […] skills: vary non-regulatory conditions.

• Closed skills with […] variability: vary regulatory and non-regulatory conditions.

• […] skills: vary regulatory and non-regulatory conditions.

• Closed

• inter-trial

• Open

Examples of Varying Practice Conditions

• Basketball free throw (closed skill).

  • […] conditions don’t change so don’t vary.

  • Following […] conditions could be varied:

    • Number of free throws to be taken, importance to game of making the free throws, crowd noise, and length of the game.

• Golf shot using a 7-iron (closed: intertrial variability).

  • Potential regulatory conditions that can vary.

    • Width of the fairway, distance of required shot, and location of ball.

• Regulatory

• non-regulatory

Random and Blocked Practice

[….] practice:

• Is schedule in which practice trials on several different tasks are mixed, or interleaved, across the practice period

• Sometimes called […] practice

• Mixing different tasks in order to facilitate learning

  • Practicing forearm hitting drills

  • Practicing backhand hitting drills

• High […] interference

• Random

• “interleaved”

• contextual

Random and Blocked Practice

Blocked Practice:

• Blocked practice is a schedule in which many trials on a single task are practiced consecutively

• Sometimes called […] practice

• […] contextual interference

• “drilled” or “repetitive”

• Low

Random VS Blocked Practice

Shea & Morgan (1979): responding to light stimulus with rapid arm movements

• […] practice always more effective for retention

• But benefit was […] on the nature of the retention test

  • Order of variable practice influenced its effectiveness

• Random

• dependent

Estimating Learning –
Random vs Blocked Practice

• […] practice

  • Learners are pretty accurate in estimating their learning

• […] practice

  • Learners overestimate their learning

  • Possible reason

    • Performance during practice misleads them to judge they have learned more than they actually have

• Random

• Blocked

Contextual Interference in Practice

• […]

• Def:  and performance disruption that results from performing variations of a skill within the context of practice

• Contextual Interference (CI)

Contextual Interference Effect

Research showed that:

• […] CI practice schedules (i.e., blocked):

  • performed better during practice (skill acquisition) than with High CI schedules

• […] CI practice schedules (i.e., random):

  • performed better during test (retention) than with Low CI schedules

• Learning […]

  • Group that did well during practice does not do well on the test

  • Group that did not perform the best during practice performed best on the test

• Low

• High

• paradox

Why is Random Practice so Effective?

• […] hypothesis

• Frequent switching among tasks (e.g., in random practice) renders the tasks more distinct from each other and more meaningful

• Results in stronger  representations

• […] hypothesis

• Frequent task switching in random practice causes forgetting of the planning done on the previous trial

  • Leads to more next-trial planning

  • Results in stronger  representations

• Elaboration

• Forgetting (Action plan reconstruction)

Limitations to Random Practice

• The beneficial effects of random practice are not […]

• […] practice is likely to be least effective when the task demands are especially high

• Demands originate from the […] or the learner

• universal

• Random

• task

Challenge Point Hypothesis (Guadagnoli and Lee, 2004)

• Proposed the implementation of [….] practice conditions that will optimally challenge the person in a way that will enhance skill learning.

  • [….] levels of contextual interference.

    • Optimal for more difficult skills.

    • Optimal for novices and young children.

  • […] levels of contextual interference.

    • Optimal for skills with lowest levels of difficulty.

    • More effective for skilled individuals.

• It is important that the practitioner base any practice schedule modification on performance difficulties evident from retention or transfer tests rather than on those from practice sessions.

• specific

• Lower

• Higher

Alternative to blocked practice

• […] schedules:

  • Some researchers have found that moderate levels of random practice are beneficial for performance and learning

• […] contingencies:

  • The difficulty of the task and the decision to repeat the same task or switch to another task depends on the performance success of the individual

• Hybrid

• Practice

Why Does CI Effect Occur?

• Experiments to test both hypotheses have demonstrated three important characteristics:

• […] levels of CI involve greater attention demands during practice than lower levels.

• People who practice according to a […] schedule tend to overestimate how well they are learning during practice.

• Higher levels of contextual interference encourage people to make more […].

• Higher

• blocked

• errors

Learning in the Classroom

• How should you not study?

• […]

  • Neglecting to study for an extended period of time and then studying intensively just before an exam

  • 25-50% of college students cram

• Cramming

Learning in the Classroom

• […] Practice

  • Practice over multiple days and weeks

  • Practice schedule that mixes different kinds of problems or materials within a single study session

• Distributed, Interleaved