Retention Of Motor Skill Research Articles

Long-term retention of motor skill in macaque monkeys and humans.

Remarkable human performance, such as playing the violin, is often based on motor skills that, once acquired, are retained for a long time. To examine how motor skills are retained, we trained monkeys and humans extensively to perform many visuomotor sequences and examined their performance after a long retention period of up to 18 months. For both monkeys and humans, we found strong evidence for long-term retention of motor skills. Each of the monkey subjects initially learned 6-18 sequences of button presses extensively by trial-and-error for up to 18 months. After a long retention period, they were asked to perform the previously learned (OLD) sequences together with completely new (NEW) sequences. The performance for OLD sequences was much better than for NEW sequences in terms of accuracy (assessed by the number of errors to criterion) and speed (assessed by the performance time). However, the retention was interfered with in two conditions, but in selective manners: (1) Learning of other sequences during the retention period interfered with accuracy, but not speed, of performance; (2) Inter-manual transfer was absent for speed, but not accuracy, of performance. The human subjects performed basically the same task as the monkeys. Each subject initially learned one sequence of 20 button presses by trial-and-error during an 8-10 day learning session. After 16 months, they were asked to perform the previously learned sequence (OLD sequence) and additional sequences including RECENT sequences (learned one day before) and NEW sequences. Their performance was considerably better on OLD and RECENT sequences than NEW sequences. Whereas the number of errors (reflecting 'accuracy') was lower for RECENT than for OLD sequences, the performance time (reflecting 'speed') was shorter for OLD than for RECENT sequences. Interestingly, the subjects were unaware that they had experienced OLD sequences. The results suggest that a motor skill is acquired and retained in two different forms, accuracy and speed. This occurs separately but concurrently. This conclusion is consistent with the hypothesis that at least two neural mechanisms operate independently to represent a motor skill.

Acquisition and Retention of Motor Skills as a Function of Age and Aerobic Fitness

Evidence suggests that cognitive ability declines with advancing age but that aerobic fitness can serve to minimize or even negate these declines. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between age, fitness, and retention. Twenty younger (M=24.2 years) and 18 older adults (M=66.6 years) practiced on the mirror star trace until they achieved a criterion. VO2max was measured. The number of trials required to reach criterion was predicted by VO2max, p < .001. and age, p < .02. Retention distance was also predicted by VO2max, p < .001, and age, p < .001. Analysis of relative alpha change at P3 and F4 indicated that a relative increase in left-hemisphere alpha and a relative decrease in right-hemisphere alpha were associated with retention errors. Thus, older and less aerobically fit adults required more trials to reach criterion and performed less well at retention, and changes in brain activity were associated with retention errors.

Variability effects on retention of a motor skill in elementary school children.

Variability effects on learning, retention, and transfer of motor skills have been a main issue for scientists involved in laboratory and field research. Variable practice is intended as parameter variations of a generalized motor program as well as rehearsal of different motor programs. Although the benefits deriving from variable practice on motor skill retention appear quite robust in laboratory settings, field investigations have produced mixed results. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of different variable schedules on the retention of a complex min tor skill in a physical education setting. 61 elementary school children were assigned Blocked/Nonvariable, Blocked/Variable, Serial/Nonvariable, or Serial/Variable schedules, and practiced two tasks (throwing and hurdle running) and a complex skill (jumping) across 14 lessons. Improved performance in the complex skill was found after practice, with the Serial/Nonvariable group outperforming all other groups. Therefore. the rehearsal of different motor programs was beneficial for jumping skill retention, whereas parameter variation was not.

精神遅滞児における運動スキルの転移と保持に及ぼす文脈干渉効果について

精神遅滞を持つ生徒42人を対象に、運動スキルの学習を促すための効果的な練習について文脈干渉効果の観点から明らかにした。実験は、異なった重さのお手玉を非利き手によって、的当てするというものであった。練習群は、それぞれ文脈干渉の低い順に(1)固定的に単一運動課題のみ練習する固定条件群、(2)ブロック群、(3)シリアル群、(4)運動課題の練習を完全に多様にしたランダム条件群とに分かれ、その後の転移、保持課題での成績を比較した。その結果、スキル習得時のパフォーマンスでは各群に成績の差は認められなかったが、転移、保持課題では、ランダム、シリアル群が有意に他の群よりも成績が安定していた。仮説が支持するようなランダム条件群の成績の向上が認められなかった原因として、KR(結果の知識: Knowledge of Results)の与え方が影響したと考えられた。

Composition of Practice: Influence on the Retention of Motor Skills

The purpose of these experiments was to investigate further the variable practice effect found by Shea and Kohl (1990). Experiment 1 was an initial attempt to determine the locus of the retention benefits demonstrated by subjects provided variable practice experiences. All groups received 20 acquisition blocks consisting of five test trials per block at a target of 150 N. The interval between test trials was either unfilled or filled, with additional trials consisting of the same target force, variable target forces, or practice on an unrelated motor task. The results indicated retention was not incremented (relative to an unfilled interval) by requiring subjects to perform an unrelated motor task in the intertest-trial interval. However, when the interest-trial interval was filled with practice on related motor tasks, retention was significantly improved. Experiment 2 assessed the impact of increasing the number of related motor tasks interpolated between test trials. The results indicated filling the intertest-trial interval with one motor task resulted in large retention benefits relative to an unfilled interval. Further increases in the number of related motor tasks (3) interpolated between test trials resulted in only modest increments to retention. The results were consistent with the elaboration perspective proposed by Shea and Zimny (1983). The elaboration perspective proposes that the simultaneous presence of related items in working memory facilitates interitem elaborative and distinctive processing that ultimately results in retention benefits.

Neuronal mechanisms of motor learning in mammals

Neural mechanisms subserving the acquisition of new motor skills are discussed in this article. Motor learning is defined, in this context, as the acquisition of novel motor skills. It is proposed that complex motor skills are acquired through a process of segmental motor learning, in which movement segments are formed, and retrieved for the execution of the learned skill. Individual movement segments are created by modulating neural activity in loop circuits that link the motor cortex and the periphery. This neural modulation occurs through synaptic plasticity in the motor cortex. Increase of synaptic efficacy in existing neural circuits, in the form of long-term potentiation (LTP), is proposed to be involved in earlier stages of motor learning. It is suggested that the retention of motor skills involves formation of new synapses.

Long-Term Potentiation in the Motor Cortex

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a model for learning and memory processes. Tetanic stimulation of the sensory cortex produces LTP in motor cortical neurons, whereas tetanization of the ventrolateral nucleus of the thalamus, which also projects to the motor cortex, does not. However, after simultaneous high-frequency stimulation of both the sensory cortex and the ventrolateral nucleus of the thalamus, LTP of thalamic input to motor cortical neurons is induced. This associative LTP occurs only in neurons in the superficial layers of the motor cortex that receive monosynaptic input from both the sensory cortex and the ventrolateral nucleus of the thalamus. Associative LTP in the motor cortex may constitute a basis for the retention of motor skills.

Rapid elbow movements in patients with torsion dystonia.

Rapid, self paced and self terminated elbow flexion movements were studied in a group of 10 patients with dystonia affecting the arms. The movements were slower and for small amplitude movements, more variable than those recorded in normal subjects. The duration of the first agonist burst was prolonged, even when compared with normal subjects deliberately moving slowly. Cocontraction of agonist and antagonist muscles during ballistic movements was common and may contribute to the bradykinesia. These findings are compared with similar studies of other diseases of the motor system. Unlike many other conditions which also reduce the speed of ballistic voluntary movements, the patients with dystonia in the present study showed a normal symmetry of acceleration and deceleration times. One interpretation of this finding is that aspects of the basic motor programmes are relatively preserved in this condition and account for the surprising retention of motor skills shown by some patients with dystonia.

Distribution of Practice in Motor Skill Acquisition: Different Effects for Discrete and Continuous Tasks

Research on the benefits of distributed practice for the acquisition and retention of motor skills has a long history. The majority of this research has involved skill acquisition of continuous tasks. However, there is some evidence to suggest that distribution of practice effects are quite different for discrete tasks than for continuous tasks. In the present study, we used a single task, formed discrete and continuous versions of the task, and examined how acquisition and retention were affected by the length of inter-trial interval. The basic task was a movement timing task that involved either one timing estimate per trial (the "discrete" version) or twenty successive estimates per trial (the "continuous" version). Separate groups of subjects learned one version of the task under either distributed (25 s inter-trial intervals) or massed (0.5 s inter-trial intervals) practice conditions. Both massed and distributed retention trials were performed on the same version of the task according to a double transfer design. The results confirmed the apparent disparity: Acquisition and retention were facilitated by distributed practice on the continuous task, but by massed practice on the discrete task. These results were discussed in terms of the role of the inter-trial interval in discrete and continuous tasks.

Consolidation Memory Theory Applied to Relearning Motor Skills in Profoundly Retarded, Multiply Handicapped Children

This study evaluated the effects of latency periods on the retention of gross motor skills in three profoundly retarded, multiply handicapped children, and the efficacy of a relearning model as a test of learning among these children. The study used a quasi-experimental, multiple baseline-across-subjects design. The subjects were taught a motor skill designed specifically to their abilities; the skill was retaught following latency periods of 90, 30, and 14 days during which time the skill was not practiced. Based upon the results of this study, it was concluded that the subjects had some ability to retrieve motor programs and that some feedback process operated to refine the motor program. It was determined that the number of trials required to achieve a criterion is dependent upon the latency interval, with a 14-day interval having no effect upon achievement of criterion. These findings are used to support an argument for intermittent programming for the retention of motor skills in profoundly retarded, multiply handicapped children, thereby helping them to maintain and expand their repertoire of behaviors.

Classical conditioning of the rabbit eyelid response with a mossy-fiber stimulation CS: I. Pontine nuclei and middle cerebellar peduncle stimulation.

The nictitating membrane/eyelid responses of 18 rabbits were classically conditioned using cerebellar mossy-fiber stimulation as a conditioned stimulus (CS) and air puff as an unconditioned stimulus (US). The dorsolateral, lateral, and medial pontine nuclei and the middle cerebellar peduncle were effective stimulation-CS sites for training. In one group of rabbits, robust conditioned eyelid responses were produced with paired trials and subsequently extinguished with CS-alone and explicitly unpaired presentation of the CS and US. In a second group of rabbits, no conditioned responses were evident for 4 days of unpaired CS and US presentations. Conditioned responses did develop, however, after paired training was begun. Lesions of the interpositus nucleus of the cerebellum completely abolished the conditioned responses of a third group of rabbits overtrained with the mossy-fiber CS and air-puff US. These results support previous studies which have demonstrated that the cerebellum is critically involved in acquisition and retention of simple learned responses. In addition, the present results support previous theories of cerebellar function which have proposed that mossy fibers supply critical "learning" input to the cerebellum for acquisition and retention of motor skills.

Retention of Motor Skills

Retention of Motor Skills

Retention of Perceptual Motor Skill: An Analysis of New Methods

Abstract New methods of determining the amount and type of forgetting pioneered by Bilodeau, Sulzer and Levy were applied to gross perceptual motor skill retention. The changing interdependencies in time of R1, the learned response; KRr, recalled knowledge of results after an interpolated rest interval; and Ra, postrest performance, were studied. No evidence of forgetting occurred except for KRr, which deteriorated in accuracy over a 21 to 23 day rest interval. Limitations of the new paradigm were discussed.

PSYCHOMOTOR TASK WITH PERFECT RECALL AFTER FIFTY WEEKS OF NO PRACTICE.

Seven Ss were trained to varying extents on a difficult balancing task, and then tested after 50 wk. without practice. The learning curves of all but one S continued after the hiatus as if there had been no break in training. The results were compared with those from other studies of long-term retention of motor skills, and various possible explanations for the unusually high retention were discussed.

Motor Learning and Retention in Normals and Defectives

Evidence for the generalization that fast learners retain more than do slow learners is equivocal. McGeoch (1942, p. 387) offered as rational support for such a relation the notion that learning and retention are continuous processes. Early empirical studies concerned with this issue have been summarized by Gillette (1936). More recently, Underwood (1954) has shown that rate of forgetting does not differ in slow and fast learners when associative strength of original learning is held constant. Leavia ( 1945) found the relation to be dependent upon the duration of the retention interval. Rank-order correlations for nonsense syllables and rotary pursuit changed from positive to negative for retention intervals ranging from 1 to 70 days. For example, coefficients for rotary pursuit, using last learning trial and first relearning trial scores, were .54,.-.06, -.68, and -.73 for retention tests on Day 1, 7, 28, and 70, respectively. Leavitt (1945, p. 140) concluded that this trend holds for . . . absolute amount retained, amount retained relative to original score, or savings. Obviously, variables other than learning rate may influence amount retained. These could include conditions operative during the retention interval, e.g., retroactive inhibition, as well as inhibitory factors generated during learning. In Hull's terms (1952), reactive inhibition (IB) could build up and/or dissipate differentially in slow and fast learners, thus complicating an assessment of the learning-retention relationship. The main purpose of the present study was to compare motor skill retention in normal and defective Ss. The test of normals for retention 1 and 28 days after learning bears upon Leavitt's findings. The experimental design also allows comparative analyses of motor skill acquisition, warm up, and reminiscence for these Ss.

Feedback during training and retention of motor skills.

Feedback during training and retention of motor skills.