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Alternating versus blocked practice in learning a cartwheel.

Peter J K Smith1, Suzanne K Gregory, Marianne Davies

  • 1School of Kinesiology and Recreation, Illinois State University, Normal 61790-5121, USA. pjsmit2@ilstu.edu

Perceptual and Motor Skills
|August 22, 2003
PubMed
Summary
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Alternating practice hindered learning the cartwheel skill, leading to poorer performance in acquisition, retention, and transfer. This suggests complex motor skills benefit less from high contextual interference.

Area of Science:

  • Motor Learning
  • Sports Science
  • Skill Acquisition

Background:

  • Contextual interference is a key variable in motor learning.
  • Research has explored its effects on various motor skills.
  • Its applicability to complex skills like gymnastics requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the generalizability of contextual interference to learning the cartwheel skill in gymnastics.
  • To compare the effects of blocked versus alternating practice orders on skill acquisition, retention, and transfer.

Main Methods:

  • 32 participants (ages 17-26) practiced two versions of the cartwheel (left-hand lead, right-hand lead) in either a blocked or alternating order.
  • A total of 192 practice trials were completed.
  • Retention and transfer tests were administered 20 minutes and 1 week post-acquisition, with errors and form scores recorded.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Alternating practice led to poorer acquisition, retention, and transfer compared to blocked practice.
  • This effect was observed in both error scores and form assessments.
  • The findings suggest that high contextual interference negatively impacts learning this complex motor skill.

Conclusions:

  • Contextual interference may not generalize effectively to complex motor skills like the gymnastics cartwheel.
  • Task complexity and the interference from practicing multiple variations together likely contribute to poorer performance with alternating practice.
  • Blocked practice may be more beneficial for learning complex, multi-variate motor skills.