CONTEXTUAL INTERFERENCE - CONTRIBUTIONS OF PRACTICE uri icon

abstract

  • The present experiment extends the findings of Shea and Morgan (1979) and Lee and Magill (1983) by determining the impact of manipulating contextual interference in 50, 200, and 400 acquisition trials on retention of a rapid force production task assessed under both random and blocked contexts. Acquisition performance was interior for the random acquisition groups as compared to the blocked groups with little differences between the 50, 200, and 400 acquisition groups' performance at comparable stages of practice. However, the retention data indicated that subjects who completed 400 random acquisition trials performed better on both random and blocked retention than subjects who learned under blocked contexts. Increasing the number of blocked acquisition trials did not improve retention under blocked contexts and had a negative effect on retention assessed under random contexts. Apparently, the benefits of blocked practice (low contextual interference) occur early in practice with response production becoming increasingly more rigid and inflexible. On the other hand, the benefits of random practice (high contextual interference) surface after initial practice. 1990.

published proceedings

  • ACTA PSYCHOLOGICA

author list (cited authors)

  • SHEA, C. H., KOHL, R., & INDERMILL, C.

citation count

  • 141

complete list of authors

  • SHEA, CH||KOHL, R||INDERMILL, C

publication date

  • March 1990