Anticipatory Rehearsal in Inverted-Reversed Printing

Abstract

Continuous practice printing upside down and backward letters of the alphabet was given for 4 min. followed by a 2-min. rest, and then a final 2 min. of practice. Half the Ss had prior information of the letter with which they were to start printing and half did not; half the Ss printed with the right hand and half with the left; and Ss were composed of 48 male and 48 female dextrals. The factorial combination of these three variables during the prerest period yielded a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design (N = 12/cell). During the postrest period the same variables were manipulated, but Ss who had been given prior information were uninformed, and vice versa. The initial negative slope of the performance curve was found only with Informed male Ss during prerest practice, but all groups produced an initial drop in the postrest performance curve. It was concluded that different processes determine the shape of the prerest and postrest curves.