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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSResearch advisors do much more than advise.They shape a student into a mold which remains imprinted for many years. My advisor, my friend, Richard Magill, has left an impression upon me which I wish to maintain and hopefully, emulate in dealing with my students in the years ahead.Dick, 1 thank you.

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To better understand the contextual interference effect, in two experiments we investigated a form of practice schedule that provided novices with systematic increases in contextual interference. This new type of practice schedule was compared with traditional blocked and random scheduling for two types of sports skills. In Experiment 1, we tested the hypothesis that practising variations of the same task with systematic increases in contextual interference would lead to superior performance compared with blocked or random scheduling. Participants practised golf putting tasks following a blocked, random or increasing schedule, which involved initial blocked trials, followed by serial practice trials, and ended with random scheduling. Participants who followed the increasing schedule had superior retention test performance. In Experiment 2, we tested if these learning benefits were observed when learning tasks controlled by different generalized motor programs. Participants practised three different basketball passes (chest, overhead, single arm) in a blocked, random or increasing schedule. Participants practising with gradual increases in contextual interference performed better on retention and transfer tests than participants practising with blocked or random scheduling. The results of these two expe

Since the publication of Schmidt's (1975) schema theory of motor learning, numerous studies have assessed the variability of practice hypothesis. Of these, only research using children as subjects has provided consistent results. Findings from adult studies have been equivocal. Two experiments were conducted to assess the possibility that the schedule of variable practice during acquisition may be a clue to this equivocality, since only experiments (using adults as subjects) that have provide random variability of practice conditions have consistently supported the tenets of schema theory. Using a two movement rapid timing task, subjects learned to control their actions under one (constant) or four (variable) parameters, with variable practice conducted under either a blocked or a randomized schedule. Results for variable error and absolute constant error showed that random-variable practice provided strong support for the schema theory prediction, whereas blocked-variable practice provided only relatively weak support. Two contrasting implications of these results are discussed with respect to support versus non-support for Schmidt' schema theory.

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This article discusses the acquisition of knowledge about environmental regulatory features that guide the selection and execution of movements involved in performing open motor skills. First, empirical evidence related to the visual search characteristics of skilled and novice performers is considered to demonstrate that learning environmental regulatory features is an important part of performing an open motor skill. Then, the hypothesis is proposed and discussed that environmental regulatory features can, and probably should, be learned implicitly, which means the features can be learned and used, even though the learner is not consciously aware of the specific characteristics of those features. This article also discusses laboratory-based experiments that provide evidence supporting this hypothesis and presents implications for developing instructional strategies and practice conditions.

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