The role of the practice order: A systematic review about contextual interference in children

Aim

We aimed to identify and evaluate the quality and evidence of the motor learning literature about intervention studies regarding the contextual interference (CI) effect (blocked vs. random practice order) in children with brain lesions and typically developing (TD) children.

Method

Eight databases (Cinahl, Cochrane, Embase, PubMed, Pedro, PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Knowledge) were searched systematically with predefined search terms. Controlled studies examining the CI effect in children (with brain lesions or TD) were included. Evidence level, conduct quality, and risk of bias were evaluated by two authors independently. A best evidence synthesis was performed.

Results

Twenty-five papers evaluating TD children were included. One of these studies also assessed children with cerebral palsy. Evidence levels were I, II, or III. Conduct quality was low and the risk of bias high, due to methodological issues in the study designs or poor description thereof. Best evidence synthesis showed mainly no or conflicting evidence. Single tasks showed limited to moderate evidence supporting the CI effect in TD children.

Conclusion

There is a severe limitation of good-quality evidence about the CI effect in children who practice different tasks in one session, especially in children with brain lesions.

Effects of different practice conditions on acquisition, retention, and transfer of soccer skills by 9-year-old schoolchildren

This study was designed to examine effects of three practice models, blocked, variable, and combined, on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of new motor skills. 67 subjects (M age = 9.5 yr., SD = .3) from the fourth year of primary school (31 boys and 26 girls) were assigned at random to three different practice groups (Blocked = 22, Variable = 23, Combined = 22) to study acquisition of two skills, dribbling a soccer ball and kicking a soccer ball at a stationary target using the dominant foot. All participants received a pretest and posttest, a transfer test, and a retention test 2 wk. later. Analysis showed significant improvement after practice of kicking skills by the three groups but not in the dribbling skills, for which only the combined practice group showed any notable improvement. At the end of acquisition, the combined practice group had significantly better performance on the dribbling task than the other two groups. However, the only differences noted in performance of kicking the ball with the dominant foot were by combined practice and blocked groups.

Random and blocked practice of movement sequences: differential effects on response structure and movement speed

Three similar six-element key press sequences were practiced under blocked or random practice schedules with acquisition conducted on one day and retention and transfer on the next day. The task required participants to type, as quickly as possible, one of three 6-element sequences as observed on a computer monitor. In blocked practice, participants completed all practice in one repeated sequence before the next repeated sequence was introduced. In random acquisition practice, the three repeated sequences were randomly presented to the participants. The data suggest that random practice results in participants adopting a uniform response structure, while blocked practice allows participants to exploit unique sequential aspects of the individual tasks. This finding suggests that random practice may not be as effective as blocked practice when one of the tasks being practiced together can be optimized through the development of a unique response structure.

Enhancing prehension in infants and children: fostering neuromotor strategies

Learning to reach for and manipulate objects requires considerable neuromotor control and flexibility. Through environmental and object exploration individual neuromotor strategies expand, and prehensile skills improve, as infants and children overcome constraints. Infants and children with prehensile deficits often have difficulty exploring objects and the environment, thus, may not sufficiently develop the strategies needed to expand their prehensile skills. This article reviews neuromotor factors that influence prehension development, discusses limitations to prehensile function and provides guidelines that can be used to examine and enhance prehensile behaviors in infants and young children based on a task-oriented approach addressing impairments, motor strategies and function.

Principles derived from the study of simple skills do not generalize to complex skill learning

We review research related to the learning of complex motor skills with respect to principles developed on the basis of simple skill learning. Although some factors seem to have opposite effects on the learning of simple and of complex skills, other factors appear to be relevant mainly for the learning of more complex skills. We interpret these apparently contradictory findings as suggesting that situations with low processing demands benefit from practice conditions that increase the load and challenge the performer, whereas practice conditions that result in extremely high load should benefit from conditions that reduce the load to more manageable levels. The findings reviewed here call into question the generalizability of results from studies using simple laboratory tasks to the learning of complex motor skills. They also demonstrate the need to use more complex skills in motor-learning research in order to gain further insights into the learning process.

Coincidence timing of a tennis stroke: effects of age, skill level, gender, stimulus velocity, and attention demand

Participants (N = 162, ages 10-15 years) performed a tennis stroke in a coincidence-timing task. Major results were: (a) performance improved mainly between the ages of 10-13 years; (b) skill differences were reflected by variable error (VE); (c) boys were lower than girls for VE and absolute error; (d) high stimulus velocity was related to low VE and late responding. Results concerning response organization favored explanations based on ecological perspectives rather than information processingperspectives. However, it is premature to disregard the potential role of programming. The view is supported that a continuous process of coupling perceptual and motor responses coordinates control of response timing. These cognitive processes appear to be: (a) refined with practice; (b) sensitive to differences in age, skill, and gender; and (c) adaptable to changes in environmental demands.

Visual characteristics of clay target shooters

A comprehensive battery of standardised visual tests was administered to 11 skilled and 12 novice clay target shooters in an attempt to determine the distinctive visual characteristics of expert performers in this sport. The static and dynamic visual acuity, ocular muscle balance, ocular dominance, depth perception and colour vision of each of the subjects was measured in addition to their performance on simple and choice reaction time, peripheral response time, rapid tachistoscopic detection, coincidence timing and eye movement skills tasks. Expert superiority was observed on the simple reaction time measure only, and the novices actually outperformed the skilled subjects on a number of the other visual measures (viz., static acuity at near distance, dynamic acuity, vertical ocular muscle balance, choice reaction time and rapid target detection discriminability). Scores on all measures for both groups were within the expected normal range indicating that normal and not necessarily above-average basic visual functioning is sufficient to support skilled clay target shooting. An important implication of the finding that skilled shooters are not characterised by supranormal levels of basic visual functioning is the recognition that any attempt to improve shooting performance through training of general attributes of vision to supranormal levels is likely to be unproductive.

Effects of tennis practice on the coincidence timing accuracy of adults and children

This study examines the development of perceptuomotor processes involved in coincidence timing tasks according to age and experience in tennis. Tennis players and novices, 7, 10, 13, and 23 years of age, were tested in a coincidence timing task which consisted of estimating the arrival of a simulated moving object on a target. The effect of three different motions were analyzed: constant velocity, constant acceleration, and constant deceleration. Results showed that (1) timing accuracy improves mainly between the ages of 7 and 10 years; (2) tennis practice accelerates the development of timing accuracy; and (3) acceleration or deceleration of the moving stimulus had no effect on the timing accuracy of any of the tested groups, suggesting a continuous visual control of the trajectory. Theoretical implications for the development of perceptuomotor processes involved in coincidence timing tasks are discussed.

Contextual interference effects in learning novel motor skills

The present study investigated the generalizability of contextual interference effects by extending previous laboratory and field research to novel movements controlled by different motor programs. 30 men and 33 women learned novel throwing and kicking tasks, practicing with blocked, serial, or random schedules. The subjects practiced the tasks four days a week for two weeks and then were given a postest. One week later subjects were given a retention test. Significant improvements in performance were found for all groups for both tasks; however, a significant effect for practice condition was found only for the throwing task during retention, for which the random practice schedule led to better learning than the blocked and the serial practice. These findings suggest that the blocked, serial, and random practice methods could be effectively used for tasks controlled by different motor programs but must be practiced in the same teaching session, without expecting one to be more effective in learning than any other.

The influence of proficiency level, transfer distality, and gender on the contextual interference effect

This study examined the impact of high and low proficiency level, transfer distality, and gender on the contextual interference effect with an open skill. Subjects were separated into two levels of proficiency based on performance on a pretest similar to the experimental task. Analysis of error scores during acquisition indicated that the partitioning of subjects according to ability level had been successful. Transfer distality was varied by presenting subjects with two tasks varying in similarity to the acquisition task. Analysis of absolute constant, constant, variable, and total error scores in transfer strongly suggested that subjects' consistency rather than response bias was affected by the experimental variables. The findings suggested that, for the task used in this study, proficiency level does not account for gender differences in the contextual interference effect, as the effect was only reliably found for females. For coincident timing skills, it appears that there may be two distinct conclusions drawn from the results of this study: contextual interference only benefits female subjects' consistency and the effect of contextual interference increases with the distality of transfer, regardless of the subjects' proficiency level.