[Locus of the retention benefits of variable practice in the motor learning]

Shea and Kohl (1990) reported that acquisition practice with variations of the criterion task leads to better retention than practice on the criterion task alone. The purpose of this study was to determine the locus of this retention benefits. Experimental task was the speed reproduction task. Eighty undergraduate male students were randomly assigned to eight practice conditions differing in the activities performed during the intertrial intervals. All subjects were administered retention test immediately and twenty-four hours after the practice. Results indicated that the retention benefits demonstrated by subjects provided variable practice was produced by the contextual interference effect not by the formation of motor response schema. Results also suggested that both of reconstruction of action plan and elaborative processing resulted in the retention benefits.