The Effects of Contextual Interference on Females With Varied Experience in Open Sport Skills

Abstract

The acquisition and transfer effects of contextual interference (Battig, 1979) were investigated on a coincidence anticipation task. The experimental task required subjects to make predictive judgements so that their responses coincided with the arrival of a light stimulus. Sixty females were selected from an activity questionnaire determining the extent of experience in similar tasks. One half were selected reporting no experience, and the remaining subjects had prior and present involvement in tasks requiring predictive judgements. Battig's (1979) conceptualization of memory was supported for experienced subjects in one transfer task. Experienced subjects who processed the acquisition tasks in high contextual interference (random order of presentation) performed significantly better than novice subjects in the same acquisition context. In addition, acquisition under a random sequence facilitated transfer to a novel task for experienced subjects as compared to acquisition under a constant order of presentation. Furthermore, evidence was found to support individual differences in processing. These data strongly support that subjects' real world experience with motor skills is an important consideration in laboratory research. Finally, inclusion of other, more descriptive independent variables is recommended when employing females so that differences attributed to gender can be more properly attributed to prior experience.