Bilateral reminiscence in pursuit-rotor learning as a function of amount of first-hand practice and length of rest.

Abstract

Twelve groups of 25 women served as subjects and received either 1, 2, 3, or 5 min. of first-hand (FH) practice on the pursuit rotor with their preferred hand; this wasfollowed by a rest of 0, 2, or 5 min.; then all subjects engaged in 5 min. of second-hand (SH) practice using their nonpreferred hand. Performance during SH practice was an increasing function of amt. of FH practice and length of rest between FH and SH practice. The slope of the FH practice-SH performance function increased with increasing lengths of interpolated rest. Bilateral reminiscence, defined as gain over rest, was an increasing function of amt. of FH practice and length of rest between FH and SH practice. It was suggested that an effector localization hypothesis of inhibition does not adequately account for the findings of bilateral reminiscence studies.