Citation

Kremer P, Spittle M, Malseed S. Percept. Mot. Skills 2011; 113(3): 805-814.

Affiliation

School of Psychology, Deakin University. peter.kremer@unimelb.edu.au

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

22403926

Abstract

This study examined the effect of similar versus dissimilar retroactive interference on the mental practice effects for performing a novel motor skill. Research has shown that mental practice of a motor task can interfere with learning and performance of the task; however, little is known about how different retroactive interference activities affect mental practice effects. 90 volunteers ages 18 to 51 years (M=26.8, SD=9.6) completed a pre-test and post-test of 10 sets of five trials of a throwing task with the non-preferred hand. In the practice phase, participants mentally practiced the throwing task and then mentally practiced a task that was similar, dissimilar, or completed an unrelated reading task. Performance for all groups improved from pre- to post-test; however, there were no differences in increases for the three groups. The findings suggest that mental practice of similar and dissimilar tasks produced no significant interference in performance.

Language: en