Self-Control of Task Difficulty During Early Practice Promotes Motor Skill Learning

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to determine whether the effect of self-control of task difficulty on motor learning is a function of the period of self-control administration. In a complex anticipation-coincidence task that required participants to intercept 3 targets with a virtual racquet, the task difficulty was either self-controlled or imposed to the participants in the two phases of the acquisition session. First, the results confirmed the beneficial effects of self-control over fully prescribed conditions. Second, the authors also demonstrated that a partial self-control of task difficulty better promotes learning than does a complete self-controlled procedure. Overall, the results revealed that these benefits are increased when this choice is allowed during early practice. The findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and applied perspectives.

Keywords:

• transfer-appropriate processing
• stages of learning
• challenge point
• specificity of practice

Notes

1. We performed a follow-up ANOVA on the racquet width choices made by the SC learners during both the early and late practice to investigate whether the learning strategies differed as a function of the duration of the choice (complete or partial). Specifically, this analysis revealed that the SC + SC group selected wider racquet widths than the SC + YO group during early practice, F(1, 22) = 4.74, p < .05, η²_p = .18, while another comparison only revealed a weak trend toward significance during late practice between the SC + SC and YO + SC groups, F(1, 22) = 2.61, p = .12. The same analysis performed on the number of intercepted targets revealed that SC + SC group intercepted significantly more targets than the SC + YO group during the early practice phase, F(1, 22) = 6.83, p < .05, η²_p = .24, and the YO + SC group during the late practice phase, F(1, 22) = 4.25, p = .05, η²_p = .16.

2. A follow-up ANOVA performed on the number of targets intercepted revealed a significant main effect of group, F(3, 44) = 2.85, p < .05, η²_p = .18. Specifically, planned pairwise comparisons revealed that the SC + YO group outperformed the YO + SC group in terms of number of targets intercepted, F(1, 44) = 4.82, p < .05.