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Retroactive interference and mental practice effects on motor performance: a pilot study.
Peter Kremer1, Michael Spittle, Sarah Malseed
1School of Psychology, Deakin University. peter.kremer@unimelb.edu.au
Perceptual and Motor Skills
|March 13, 2012
Summary
Mental practice can interfere with motor skill learning. This study found that practicing similar or dissimilar tasks mentally did not significantly interfere with learning a novel motor skill.
Area of Science:
- Motor Learning
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Mental practice of motor tasks can lead to interference effects.
- Limited research exists on how varying retroactive interference activities impact mental practice effects on motor skill acquisition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of similar versus dissimilar retroactive interference on mental practice effects for a novel motor skill.
Main Methods:
- 90 participants (ages 18-51) underwent pre- and post-tests for a novel throwing task using their non-preferred hand.
- Participants engaged in mental practice of the task, followed by mental practice of a similar, dissimilar, or unrelated reading task.
Main Results:
- All groups demonstrated performance improvement from pre-test to post-test.
- No significant differences in performance gains were observed between the groups exposed to similar, dissimilar, or unrelated tasks.
Conclusions:
- Mental practice of tasks, whether similar or dissimilar to the target skill, did not produce significant interference effects on motor skill performance in this study.
