The effect of rest following massed practice of continuous and discrete motor tasks

Theories of the rest-related phenomena of reminiscence and warm-up decrement regard them as independent, being due to different factors. In this study it was found that rest following massed practice of a continuous task increased performance (reminiscence) and rest following massed practice of a discrete task lowered performance (warm-up decrement). The near-zero correlation found between the phenomena indicates that they are indeed independent and task-specific. Implications of the findings for the prediction of the effect of rest, and the fact that much motor learning and performance is task-specific, is discussed.     

Some Physiological Concomitants of Pursuit Rotor Performance and Reminiscence

A frustration theory of pursuit rotor performance and reminiscence has previously been presented (Costello, 1967; Costello & Discipio, 1967). The theory was reformulated in terms of arousal theory and the following hypotheses were tested: (1) an inverted “U” relationship exists between level of arousal and performance level; (2) reminiscence results when S during the rest period moves closer to his optimum level of arousal; (3) massed practice produces a higher level of arousal than spaced practice; (4) experimental conditions producing a high drive state will also increase his arousal level. Findings in line with these hypotheses were found for EMG measures but not for GSR and pulse rate. In view of what appears to be the task-specific nature of the physiological results it was concluded that there was no particular advantage in reformulating the frustration theory in terms of arousal theory.     

Transfer of Work Decrement in Motor Learning

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the decremental effects of massed practice are due to the development of a negative drive (Hull’s I_r). The results indicated that the decremental effects of massed practice on either the pursuit rotor or the two-hand coordinator do not transfer to depress performance or reminiscence on the other task. The results did not support Hull’s drive interpretation but were explained by theories attributing decrement to a decreased level of arousal.     

The activity-set hypothesis for warm-up decrement in a movement balance task

This study investigated the activity-set hypothesis in reducing warm-up decrement. With regard to the hypothesis, it is predicted that warm-up decrement, which is a temporary loss of skill performance following rest, could be reduced if an appropriate reinstating activity were engaged in just prior to the resumption of practice. Seventy-five subjects were given twenty 20-sec tests on the stabilo-meter (criterion task), and then either (a) rested, (b) rested and then performed on interpolated "activity-set" task, or (c) rested and then performed an interpolated "activation" task. All subjects, after receiving one of the three conditions were then retested on the stabilometer for an additional six trials. An analysis of planned comparisons showed that the activity-set interpolated task was effective in reducing warm-up decrement and that activation was not a factor.     

A Note on State Individual Differences in Accuracy of Response Imagery: Aftereffects and Reminiscence

In two sessions, separated by 7 days, subjects imagined themselves performing a tracking task under a massed practice schedule. After conditions of interpolated rest and no-rest, which were counterbalanced across sessions, subjects actually performed the tracking task. During imagery practice, subjects verbally reported the temporal component of the task. The temporal accuracy of verbal reports varied widely across subjects, but not within subjects. Furthermore, a performance gain was demonstrated as a function of interpolated rest versus no-rest (reminiscence effect). Finally, the accuracy of verbal reports predicted imagery aftereffects, but not reminiscence effects.     

The Activity-Set Hypothesis for Warm-up Decrement in a Movement Balance Task

This study investigated the activity-set hypothesis in reducing warm-up decrement. With regard to the hypothesis, it is predicted that warm-up decrement, which is a temporary loss of skill performance following rest, could be reduced if an appropriate reinstating activity were engaged in just prior to the resumption of practice. Seventyfive subjects were given twenty 20-sec tests on the stabilometer (criterion task), and then either (a) rested, (b) rested and then performed on interpolated “activity-set” task, or (c) rested and then performed an interpolated “activation” task. All subjects, after receiving one of the three conditions were then retested on the stabilometer for an additional six trials. An analysis of planned comparisons showed that the activity-set interpolated task was effective in reducing warmup decrement and that activation was not a factor.     

Task Difficulty and the Time Scales of Warm-Up and Motor Learning

The authors investigated the influence of task difficulty on warm-up decrement and learning across practice sessions. Three groups of participants practiced a star-tracing task over 3 consecutive days with different levels (e.g., easy, medium, hard) of task difficulty. The performance data were modeled with a 2 time scale function that represented the transient, fast time scale process of warm-up decrement superimposed with the persistent, slow time scale process of learning. Movement time decreased as a function of practice with the most difficult condition exhibiting the greatest reduction though still the longest movement time. The 2 time scale model provided a better fit to the data than an exponential or power law function and showed that the 3 difficulty conditions exhibited similar rates of change for the respective slow (i.e., learning) and fast (i.e., warm-up decrement) time scale processes that varied by an order of magnitude. Task difficulty was inversely related to the initial level of warm-up decrement but not the rate of performance recovery early in a practice session. The findings support the postulation that there is a persistent learned component to the initial conditions in subsequent practice sessions but that there is a common time scale of accommodating the transient process of warm-up decrement.     

Effector localization and transfer of reactive inhibition

An experimental test was made of Hull's (1943) notions that reactive inhibition is effector-specific and that it has primary negative motivational properties. Four groups of 20 subjects (10 males and 10 females in each) executed two segments of continuous right-hand practice on a mirror-tracking task. The two segments were separated either by 0 min rest, 5 min rest, 5 min continuous right-hand practice on rotary pursuit, or 5 min continuous left-hand practice on rotary pursuit. Effects of interpolated conditions were measured in terms of main-task reminiscence arid initial post-treatment performance. When interpolated practice was conducted with the right hand, reminiscence and post-treatment performance were significantly depressed relative to the rest effect, but not when interpolated practice was conducted with the left hand. Thus, Hull's views were supported, while competing views, such as the task specificity concept of lr and the consolidation theory of reminiscence, were impugned.     

Individual and sex differences in reminiscence

Inverted alphabet printing, rotary pursuit, and mirror tracking tasks were administered to 84 subjects in order to ascertain (a) reproducibility of reminiscence scores within and between tasks and (b)sex differences in reminiscence. With prerest performance levels held constant by second-order partial correlation procedures, reproducibility of individual reminiscence differences within tasks was significant but quite low, while predictability of reminiscence from one task to another was negligible. The sexes reminisced essentially alike on inverted alphabet printing, but females reminisced more than males on the other tasks, presumably because they were relatively more depressed by massed practice on these tasks. Thus, individual and sex differences were essentially task specific. Implications of results for reminiscence theories and for the credibility of alleged relationships between reminiscence and other organismic variables were discussed.     

Effect of using mechanical devices for baseball batting on warm-up decrement

The extent to which different mechanical baseball-batting devices used during a rest affected performance immediately after rest (warm-up decrement) was examined. Difference scores between the average of prerest Trials 8, 9, and 10 and each of 10 postrest trials were used to determine the presence of warm-up decrement. It was predicted that the use of a batting-T and the Batter's Aid machine (in which a batter swings at a ball popped up within the strike zone) would result in superior performance measured as the distance (ft.) a ball was hit and frequency of contacts on postrest performance reducing or eliminating the warm-up decrement. Performance of 33 boys, aged 11 and 12 yr., indicated that only use of the Batter's Aid eliminated warm-up decrement with respect to both the distance and frequency as compared to the batting-T and control groups. In addition, the batting-T condition solicited significantly better performance than the controls on the distance measure but was statistically similar to the controls in frequency of contacts. Also, superior performance was significantly related to heightened heart rate, a physiological index of arousal. A primary explanation of the results focused on the effects of heightened physiological and psychological arousal on warm-up decrement.     

The Large Pursuit Rotor

The question of whether certain phenomena that occur on the conventional rotary pursuit and other small apparatus also appear on a gross motor task was examined using a large pursuit rotor that required whole-body movements. College males (n=29) were given 90 10-sec trials over three consecutive days with 30 trials of continuous practice per day. The existence of reactive inhibition, reminiscence, and warmup decrement was confirmed, indicating that common mechanisms underlie both fine and gross bodily movements. In addition, the substantial amounts of learning and the high reliabilities for performance and learning indicated that the present apparatus has considerable potential for motor-learning research.     

Response Imagery: Aftereffects and Reminiscence

In two experiments, subjects imagined themselves performing a tracking task under a massed practice schedule. After interpolated rest or no rest, subjects actually performed the criterion task. Some subjects' imagery was augmented with sounds that matched the temporal characteristics of the criterion task. These subjects produced greater aftereffects than subjects who imaged without augmentation or subjects provided with imagery augmentation matching a variation of the criterion. Reminiscence (performance gain attributed to interpolated rest) was demonstrated with imagery, except when the accompanying augmentation was faster than the criterion.     

Individual Differences in Various Parameters of Motor Learning

60 Ss practiced 6 days on the stabilometer. No reminiscence or warm-up decrement was found; loss of skill occurred from 1-day layoffs which lessened as learning progressed. A 3-component exponential equation fitted the learning trend (including relearning). Both individual differences and intra-individual variations decreased exponentially with practice, but the ratio of individual differences to mean score increased. Practice had little influence on adjacent trial rs. Between scores in any particular pair of separated trials, r decreased when increasing number of trials separated them. Averaging 8 initial and 8 final trials gave optimum learning score reliability (r = .95). Individual rates of learning were not appreciably correlated with amounts of learning (r = .23). Final performance levels could only be predicted 50% from initial skill and cumulated amounts of learning unless more than half of the total practice (i.e., more than 90% of the potential learning) had been accomplished. The pattern of zero order rs between amount of learning and initial and final skill levels differed markedly from that previously observed in learning the ladder climb.     

Investigation on the improvement and transfer of dual-task coordination skills

Recent research has demonstrated that dual-task performance in situations with two simultaneously presented tasks can be substantially improved with extensive practice. This improvement was related to the acquisition of task coordination skills. Earlier studies provided evidence that these skills result from hybrid practice, including dual and single tasks, but not from single-task practice. It is an open question, however, whether task coordination skills are independent from the specific practice situation and are transferable to new situations or whether they are non-transferable and task-specific. The present study, therefore, tested skill transfer in (1) a dual-task situation with identical tasks in practice and transfer, (2) a dual-task situation with two tasks changed from practice to transfer, and (3) a task switching situation with two sequentially presented tasks. Our findings are largely consistent with the assumption that task coordination skills are non-transferable and task-specific. We cannot, however, definitively reject the assumption of transferable skills when measuring error rates in the dual-task situation with two changed tasks after practice. In the task switching situation, single-task and hybrid practice both led to a transfer effect on mixing costs.     

The Activity-Set Hypothesis For Warm-Up Decrement in a Movement-Speed Task

The activity-set hypothesis that warm-up decrement (WUD) is caused by loss over rest of a generalized readiness to respond was tested using a right-hand movement-time task. 34 university males practiced 20 trials of the right-hand task, and then had a 10-min. no-practice period during which they either rested (Condition REST) or rested plus practiced a left-hand movement-time task, (Condition ACT). When Ss were transferred to the right-hand task, Condition REST produced large WUD which was quickly eliminated, whereas Condition ACT produced no WUD. This supported the hypothesis that the left-hand task reinstated the activity set for movement speed, and that WUD is the loss of a generalized non-habit readiness to respond. Implications for rival hypotheses for WUD were discussed.     

Psychomotor reminiscence as a function of sex and length of rest period

Sex differences in psychomotor reminiscence were examined as a function of the length of the rest period. Five groups of Caucasian subjects, each group consisting of 12 males and 12 females, practiced continuously for 3 min on a mirror-tracking task, then rested for 0,1, 2, 4, or 8 min before resuming continuous practice. Reminiscence in both sexes increased as negatively accelerated functions of the amount of rest. The asymptotic level of reminiscence was higher for females than for males, but the quadratic slopes of the two functions were essentially alike. Analyses of prerest trial gains supported a conclusion that females reminisced more because they accumulated more reactive inhibition prior to rest.     

The use of positively-worded performance reminders to reduce warm-up decrement in the field hockey penalty shot

Abstract

The effect of performance reminders in reducing temporary posttest performance decrement, referred to as warm-up decrement (WUD), was examined. Advanced, male, held hockey players performed 21 baseline trials of the standard penalty shot and then rested for three 7-min periods, each of which was followed by 4 additional penalty shots. During the last 2 min of each rest period, control participants continued resting while participants in 2 other groups reviewed written checklists containing positively-worded (PR) performance reminders (e.g., “watch the ball”) or negatively-worded (NR) reminders (e.g., “don't rush the shot”). Diminished posttest performance accuracy and movement form (i.e., WUD) was found for the NR group and control group but not for the PR group. It was concluded that the review of positively-worded performance reminders may be an effective warming-up activity for certain types of discontinuous sport performance.     

Reminiscence and item recovery in free recall

The item recovery or reminiscence component of recall in RTT procedures was investigated in two free recall experiments. In the first, Erdelyi and Becker's (1974) "hypermnesia" effect was found with pictures as the to-be-remembered material: total amount recalled increased over two successive test trials, and included a large reminiscence effect, with some 27% of previously unrecalled items appearing in the second test. The second experiment, with word lists, showed that the frequency of occurrence of new items was greater following a 12-min separation of two test trials than in two relatively massed tests. This kind of item recovery is relevant to models of output interference and retrieval limitations in free recall, and may be also related to spontaneous recovery effects.     

Sex,sex role,and psychomotor reminiscence

Effects of sex and sex role on psychomotor reminiscence and task proficiency were investigated in samples of masculine males, masculine females, feminine males, and feminine females, as defined by the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Sex contributed significantly to the variance of reminiscence and to the slopes of prerest practice gains, as others have found. Sex role contributed virtually nothing to the variance of reminiscence, but feminine subjects of both sexes reached generally higher levels of performance than masculine subjects. Sex and sex role effects were orthogonal at all points of comparison.     

An examination of the dynamic relationship between self-efficacy and performance across levels of analysis and levels of specificity

This research used resource allocation theory to generate predictions regarding dynamic relationships between self-efficacy and task performance from 2 levels of analysis and specificity. Participants were given multiple trials of practice on an air traffic control task. Measures of task-specific self-efficacy and performance were taken at repeated intervals. The authors used multilevel analysis to demonstrate differential and dynamic effects. As predicted, task-specific self-efficacy was negatively associated with task performance at the within-person level. On the other hand, average levels of task-specific self-efficacy were positively related to performance at the between-persons level and mediated the effect of general self-efficacy. The key findings from this research relate to dynamic effects--these results show that self-efficacy effects can change over time, but it depends on the level of analysis and specificity at which self-efficacy is conceptualized. These novel findings emphasize the importance of conceptualizing self-efficacy within a multilevel and multispecificity framework and make a significant contribution to understanding the way this construct relates to task performance.