Abstract

PINHEIRO, João de P.  and  CORREA, Umberto C.. Practice schedule in the acquisition of a coincident timing task with deceleration of the visual stimulus . Rev. Port. Cien. Desp. [online]. 2007, vol.7, n.3, pp.336-346. ISSN 1645-0523.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of different practice schedules in the acquisition of a coincident timing task with deceleration of the visual stimulus. Participants were 56 children distributed in four experimental groups of practice: constant, random, constant-random, and random-constant. The instrument was an apparatus of coincident timing for complex tasks. The task consisted of touching five response keys sequentially in integration to a visual stimulus. The study was composed by two phases of learning: stabilization and adaptation. Measures of global performance were absolute, variable, and constant errors; on the other hand, measures related to the pattern of execution were the relative timing and the total time of movement. The results showed that the groups of random practice and random-constant practice had more consistent performances than the group of constant practice. In addition, it was observed that, in the adaptation phase, the group of constant practice modified its micro-structure while the other groups modified their macro-structure. It can be concluded that random and random-constant practice schedules led to better adaptation than constant practice, since these schedules enabled the formation of a more flexible macro-structure.

Keywords : practice schedule; motor skill acquisition; coincident timing; deceleration of the visual stimulus.

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