Schema: the variability of practice hypothesis

An experiment is presented which tested the variability of practice hypothesis of Schmidt's (1975) schema theory. Children served as subjects and a complex motor task was used. The results supported the variability of practice hypothesis in that the group that had more variable practice did perform better on the average on a novel variation of the task than did the group with less variable practice. There was no support for the suggestion that variability of practice would increase the rate of improvement on the novel variation. The results are discussed in relation to the differential importance of the four subcomponents of the schema in its development.