Specificity in practice benefits learning in novice models and variability in demonstration benefits observational practice

Abstract

Considerable research has shown that both demonstration and verbal instruction can facilitate learning of a motor task in inexperienced individuals. In the current study, verbal instructions were used as a means to reduce the discovery learning process and control the amount of trial-to-trial variability in demonstrations. The task required models to learn to trace a pair of circles with a 90 degrees -relative phase pattern between the arms. Verbal instructions directed one group of models toward a single strategy, and this group improved at a faster rate and performed better in a 24-h retention test compared to a group of models in a discovery learning context. The discovery models utilized multiple strategies throughout the practice. Each model was watched for 2 days by an observer, who was instructed that they would have to produce the 90 degrees -relative phase pattern on day 3. Observers, who watched the discovery models, performed better than those who watched the single strategy models. The results support two primary conclusions. First, trial-to-trial variability associated with strategy selection processes in a model benefits an observer by facilitating perceptual discrimination processes that may play a key role in action generation. Second, verbal instructions that reduce discovery learning during physical practice benefit acquisition and retention performance when the task has multiple strategies wherein no one strategy guarantees the best performance outcome.

Perception and action influences on discrete and reciprocal bimanual coordination

“…The majority of research that has examined the influence of visual models on complex bimanual movements has focused on visual demonstration (Bingham, Schmidt, & Zaal, 1999;Breslin, Hodges, Williams, Curran, & Kremer, 2005;Hodges, Chua, & Frank, 2003) and observational learning (Buchanan & Dean, 2010Maslovat, Hodges, Krigolson, & Handy, 2010). More recently research has begun to focus on characteristics of the visual display itself (see Sigrist, Rauter, Riener & Wolf, 2013 for review).…”

Are young children able to learn exploratory strategies by observation?

“…Observing another person performing a complex action represents a desirable condition of learning that enables the learner to better understand the skill prior to the performance and/or it helps the learner to more readily discriminate perceptually variables that are important for the performance of that skill (Bird & Heyes, 2005 ; Meltzoff et al, 2009 ). It is believed that observation of an action facilitates motor learning of that skill because it facilitates the acquisition of the main spatial and temporal features of the task, and thus removes the need to create a cognitive representation of the action pattern through experiential learning (Keetch, Schmidt, Lee, & Young, 2005 ; Buchanan & Dean, 2010 ; Rohbanfard & Proteau, 2011 ). However, it is worth of noting that conditions of learning that accelerate the learning, by limiting the time-consuming process of learning by trial and error and reducing the practice needed to learn, often fail to support long-term retention and transfer (Schmidt & Bjork, 1992 ; Bjork, 2011 ; Bjork, Dunlosky, & Kornell, 2013 ).…”

Observation learning of a motor task: who and when?

“…However, novice models have also been used successfully for task learning (Black and Wright 2000;Buchanan and Dean 2010;Buchanan et al 2008;Hayes et al 2010; Lee and White 1990;McCullagh and Caird 1990;McCullagh and Meyer 1997;Pollock and Lee 1992), most likely because an observer has a better chance of detecting and learning from errors (Badets et al 2006;Blandin and Proteau 2000) or changes in strategy in novice models (Buchanan and Dean 2010).…”