Practice schedule and adaptative process in motor learning: effects of task specificity

Author(s)

João Augusto de Camargo Barros

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Educação Física e Esportes (EEFE/BT)
• Defense date: 2006-09-21

Examining board members

Umberto Cesar Correa; Rodolfo Novellino Benda; Go Tani

• Advisor: Umberto Cesar Correa

Abstract

Recently the effects of practice schedules on the acquisition of motor skills have been investigated under a non-equilibrium model for motor learning known as Adaptive Process. The findings of these investigations have been divergent, and on this dissertation they are speculated on the basis of task specificity. The question asked was: would the effects of constant, random, constant-random and random-constant practice schedules on motor skills acquisition be specific to the task? Thus, the purpouse of this study was to investigate the effects of different practice schedules on the acquisition of motor skills as a function of task specificity. This matter was investigated in three experiments in wich the learning demands and practice variability were in terms of time, force and spatial control, respectively, experiments 1, 2 and 3. The experimental design of the three experiments involved four practice groups (constant, random, constant-random, and random-constant) and two phases (stabilization and adaptation). Sixty children, with mean age of 11 years, participated of each experiment. The results suggest that there is a complementarity of specificity and generability of the effects of the different practice schedules on the adaptive process for the different tasks (AU)