The relationship between two kinds of inhibition and the amount of practice.

Abstract

In an expt. designed to determine the shapes of the curves relating reactive inhibition and conditioned inhibition to the amount cf practice, 20 subjects were given 10 daily practice sessions and a total of 150 50-sec. trials on the pursuit rotor. Half of the subjects rested about 5 sec. between trials; the other half rested for 65 sec. between trials. Using calculational procedures developed in a previous paper it was found that reactive inhibition decreases to zero late in practice and that conditoned inhibition increases with practice in a negatively accelerated fashion. These results confirm and extend those previously reported. They are interpreted in terms of Kimble''s theory of motor learning.