Transfer of training to a motor skill as a function of variation in rate of response.

Abstract

Abstract : An experiment is reported which deals with transfer of training as a function of differences in response rate between the training and final tasks. The tasks employed in this experiment involved turning a crank so as to keep a pointer in alignment with a target which moved irregularly back and forth over a 120 degree sector on the circumference of a dial. The results of the experiment have a number of implications for problems which arise in the training of certain types of motor tasks involving pursuit reactions. The experiment was specifically designed to study the transfer effects of training on a task which differs from a final task with respect to the responses required, but which involves stimuli identical to those of the final task. Knowledge of the effects of response variation has obvious relevance to the problems arising in redesigning instruments or devising synthetic training devices. In each of these cases it is necessary to know to what extent differences in the responses required to operate the two pieces of equipment affect the ease with which the final task in question may be learned. (Author)