Compared to blocked practice, interleaved practice of different tasks leads to superior long-term retention despite poorer initial acquisition performance. This phenomenon, the contextual interference effect, is well documented in various domains but it is not yet clear if it persists in the absence of explicit knowledge in terms of fine motor sequence learning. Additionally, while there is some evidence that interleaved practice leads to improved transfer of learning to similar actions, transfer of implicit motor sequence learning has not been explored. The present studies used a serial reaction time task where participants practiced three different eight-item sequences that were either interleaved or blocked on Day 1 (training) and Day 2 (testing). In Experiment 1, the retention of the three training sequences was tested on Day 2 and in Experiment 2, three novel sequences were performed on Day 2 to measure transfer. We assessed whether subjects were aware of the sequences to determine whether the benefit of interleaved practice extends to implicitly learned sequences. Even for participants who reported no awareness of the sequences, interleaving led to a benefit for both retention and transfer compared to participants who practiced blocked sequences. Those who trained with blocked sequences were left unprepared for interleaved sequences at test, while those who trained with interleaved sequences were unaffected by testing condition, revealing that learning resulting from blocked practice may be less flexible and more vulnerable to testing conditions. These results indicate that the benefit of interleaved practice extends to implicit motor sequence learning and transfer.
Humans and other animals exhibit an astonishing capacity to learn motor and perceptual skills through practice and experience. Both can occur without awareness and explicit knowledge of what has been learned. They follow similar learning trajectories and involve offline gains in performance. Work with neuropsychological patients has revealed the importance of interactions between cortex and the basal ganglia in both types. One difference that appears to exist is the capacity for transfer to similar learning situations. While skills are relatively less flexible than conscious knowledge, perceptual skills are particularly specific to the training stimuli. However, both types of skill learning may benefit from contextual interference during training, leading to skills that can transfer more readily. Many of the procedures learned during daily life have components of both motor and perceptual learning. Thus understanding how to facilitate these forms of implicit skill learning can improve training in rehabilitation and educational settings.
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