Abstract
Spacing effects during retention of verbal information are easily obtained, and the effect size is large. Relatively little evidence exists on whether motor skill retention benefits from distributed practice, with even less evidence on complex motor skills. We taught a 17-note musical sequence on a piano to individuals without prior formal training. There were five lags between learning episodes: 0-, 1-, 5-, 10-, and 15-min. After a 5-min retention interval, participants’ performance was measured using three criteria: accuracy of note playing, consistency in pressure applied to the keys, and consistency in timing. No spacing effect was found, suggesting that the effect may not always be demonstrable for complex motor skills or non-verbal abilities (timing and motor skills). Additionally, we taught short phrases from five songs, using the same set of lags and retention interval, and did not find any spacing effect for accuracy of song reproduction. Our findings indicate that although the spacing effect is one of the most robust phenomena in the memory literature (as demonstrated by verbal learning studies), the effect may vary when considered in the novel realm of complex motor skills such as piano performance.
Highlights
The spacing effect refers to a comparison of temporal lags between learning sessions, with no lag representing massed learning
The vast majority of the spacing effect literature focuses on verbal learning, and less than 10% of the literature examines motor learning [1,2]
A total of 0.4% of cells were missing data, following computation of means, solely due to experimenter error saving data
Summary
The spacing effect refers to a comparison of temporal lags between learning sessions, with no lag representing massed learning. The vast majority of the spacing effect literature focuses on verbal learning, and less than 10% of the literature examines motor learning [1,2]. Music learning provides a domain in which we can compare usefulness of the spacing effect across a range of skills. This questionnaire included information on gender, handedness, age, university major, years of education, bilingualism, mother’s education, hearing and vision problems, medical background, history of musical training, and hobbies. “How happy are you ?” and “How comfortable are you ?,” were asked both at the beginning and end of the study to measure short-term changes in anxiety and comfort states. Overall anxiety traits were measured with twelve additional questions, such as “I have a fear of making mistakes.” at the end of the study
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