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Practice

Practice. Amount, specificity, variable, constant. Performance & learning. What is learning, really? Performance is observed, learning inferred Performance can improve without improved learning Learning can improve without improved performance. Amount of practice.

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Practice

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  1. Practice Amount, specificity, variable, constant...

  2. Performance & learning • What is learning, really? • Performance is observed, learning inferred • Performance can improve without improved learning • Learning can improve without improved performance

  3. Amount of practice • Do we become less dependent on the environment, or more? • Important implications – should you practice powerlifting in front of a mirror to aid form? (Proteau & Temblay, 1998) • Motor program theories could suggest you should • Repeat, repeat, repeat, and the process becomes increasingly independent of sensation (“you could do it with your eyes closed” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yshe4BcN_Mg). • Proteau and colleagues thought otherwise...

  4. Amount of practice • As we learn, do we rely less on feedback? • Proteau’s task (1987, 1992)...

  5. Amount of practice • As we learn, do we rely less on feedback? • Proteau’s typical paradigm... • Task: 90cm movement in 550msec • Condition 1: 200 trials with vision • Condition 2: 2000 trials with vision • Test condition: No vision Has also used walking (see next slide), force control, and others Sometimes as little as 20 vs. 200 trials too.

  6. Amount of practice • As we learn, do we rely less on feedback? • Typical Results: The full vision practice condition typically transfers to a no vision condition badly, and this gets worse as full vision practice increases

  7. Amount of practice • As we learn, we seem to rely more on the information that is present and used when we learn • For the powerlifting form example – mirrors not a good idea (Proteau & Tremblay, 1998) • Also think of learning to type, drive (shifting gear), play piano (watching fingers) and so on • “learning is specific to the source or sources of afferent information that are more likely to ensure optimal performance”

  8. Amount of practice • More recent findings: • Weak vs. strong visual cues (still a reaching task) – weak vision transfers as well as no vision to a no vision condition • Weak vision encourages processing of other sources of information like proprioception

  9. Variability of practice • Imagine you’re trying to teach catching • Should you make it as simple as possible, by choosing only one type of ball, one type of throw, one catching technique…etc… • Or not?

  10. Variability of practice • Schema Theory (Schmidt, 1975) • More variability means more generalized schema for learning • Like a regression rule • Your performance of the right movement depends on the proximity of previous behavior to the desired behavior

  11. Variability of practice • Supported? • Generally, I’d say so, provided key assumptions are met • Are the participants genuinely novices? • Is sufficient practice given to form a strong enough prediction rule? • Is prediction of a novel version of the task ultimately required? • See Schmidt and Shapiro (1982) for a summary, and Schmidt & Lee’s texts for more recent summaries. • Does not imply that the governing theory is accepted • Now as for organization of variability...

  12. Random Blocked Serial All A’s …then all B’s …then all C’s Who knows – it’s random! A B C Contextual interference • Practice order (3 tasks – A, B, and C) Low Amount of contextual interference High

  13. Contextual interference • Practice order (3 tasks – A, B, and C) • Stimulus light goes off • Color signifies which movement pattern to perform • Pick up tennis ball • Knock down barriers • Replace tennis ball • RT and MT measured

  14. Contextual Interference effect • From the classic study (Shea & Morgan, 1979) • Practice – Low CI is better (time is being measured, so smaller scores are better) • Retention – High CI is better

  15. Contextual Interference • Theory • 2 primary hypotheses • Elaboration • Compare the sequence of tasks practiced within blocked and random practice – what kinds of comparisons between or among the tasks are promoted by each type of practice? • “inter-task” versus “intra-task” processing.

  16. Contextual Interference • Theory • 2 primary hypotheses • Action plan reconstruction • Compare the sequence of tasks practiced within blocked and random practice – how long, on average, do you have to wait before the task is repeated in each practice order? • Brown-Peterson (1958), Peterson-Peterson (1960) Recall worsens as interval “A” increases A Recall improves (!) as interval “A” increases A

  17. Contextual Interference • Which hypothesis is best supported? • Please note I’m not saying this is proof of one theory’s predominance – it’s too complicated for that (think external validity!) – but it is interesting evidence in this instance.

  18. Contextual Interference • Predictions, and task

  19. Contextual Interference • A typical trial pattern (showing when TMS is applied)

  20. Contextual Interference Random practice groups affected by TMS Blocked practice groups unaffected by TMS • Which hypothesis is best supported? Blocked Groups Random Groups

  21. Contextual Interference • Now for something completely different We’ll see that these findings may severely limit the generalization of the CI effect

  22. Contextual Interference • Task: • Notice: overall duration varies across tasks; relative timing does not

  23. Contextual Interference • Task: • With this task, you can vary overall duration without varying rhythm • see previous slide • Or both • Or vice versa • E.g. • 300-200-400 • 400-300-200 • and 200-300-400

  24. Contextual Interference • Findings • Experiment 1: • The more consistent the practice type, the better people perform in retention and transfer • Here, ratio feedback was provided for all groups (i.e. how well did the person do in performing the required rhythm?)

  25. Contextual Interference • Experiment 2: • Feedback type has a radical effect on this outcome • Hard to grasp, but depending on feedback, effect is almost reversed • Generally, whatever results in stability of RT during practice works (random practice with segment feedback did this, & so did blocked practice w/ratio feedback) • Implication is that random practice is not good for learning tasks that require new relative timing patterns... • ...but it is good if only absolute timing is required to change.

  26. Contextual Interference • Applied work (e.g. – there’s lots more)... A task with “switched” relative timing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIG3El76ltg&feature=related

  27. Contextual Interference • Smith & Davies (1995) • Used a Pawlata roll • Compared progressive part learning of a full roll with either alternate (high CI) or blocked (low CI) practice • All transferred to both a full and a half roll one weeklater (score is 5 - average # attempts prior to success)

  28. Contextual Interference • Since then... • Still celebrated as a general effect (in some places) • Does not seem to be the case • Shea’s (& colleagues) work clearly important • Findings largely limited to overall timing (simple adaptations of already known movements) • Exceptions? • Smith & Davies (1995, see also Smith, 2002, Smith et al, 2003) may be a result of negative transfer rather than CI (though this certainly matters too). • See Barreiros, Figueiredo, & Godinho (2007) for a review of applied work. They say successful applications are somewhat rare (c. 40%) • Subsequent work emphasizes the disconnect between simple and complex tasks(see next slide)

  29. Contextual Interference • Complexity as a moderator (for CI & others) A good review paper for the final

  30. Contextual Interference • Different neural substrates responding to different practice structures? TMS again, used this time to disrupt particular brain sites (published in 2010)

  31. Contextual Interference – concluding comments • So what does all that mean? • There do seem to be fundamental differences in the brain’s reaction to the different practice types • These differences seem to be associated with different memory activities • Could be that random practice enhances recall-retrieval practice, while constant (or blocked) practice does not enhance recall-retrieval, but does a better job of allowing people to learn new movement patterns.

  32. Part vs. Whole practice • Segmentation, fractionation, simplification, component interdependence... • Do the parts fit together naturally, or can they be easily separated? • Think of a free throw – should you practice the knee movement and the arm movement separately? • Juggling...from the annals of 257 (Spring 2000) – Knapp & Dixon (1952) revisited.

  33. Part vs. Whole practice 11am class: move through practice stages quickly (get to the full juggling phase as soon as possible) 12:35pm class: practice each stage thoroughly (master each stage before moving on) Similar findings have been published by Knapp & Dixon, 1952.

  34. Part vs. Whole practice • In this case, part practice of juggling didn’t work well • Seems that the skill is highly organized, and as such should not be practiced in parts • Task complexity and organization (Naylor and Briggs, 1963) • More recent research...

  35. Part vs. Whole practice Polyrhythm does not benefit from part practice • Part/whole practice for Polyrhythms Unimanual works well regardless of training type

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