The effect of unequal amounts of practice on motor learning before and after rest.

Abstract

157 subjects were trained on a pursuit rotor for a 5-min. pre-rest session, 10-min. rest and a 5-min. post-rest session. Groups worked under massed practice (MP) or distributed practice (DP) during the pre-rest session. One of the DP groups was given MP and one of the MP groups received DP during the post-rest session. DP subjects performed significantly better than the MP subjects at the end of the pre-rest period. Relative reminiscence gain was the same for all groups. Post-rest distributed practice groups were significantly superior to the post-rest massed groups. Results indicated that "S's who had used distributed practice before rest had not only shown superior performance, but had learned as much as massed practice S's, even though they had considerably less practice." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)