Generalizability of the guidance hypothesis to a brief acquisitions phase

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted to Investigate the generality of the guidance hypothesis to a brief practice (acquisition) session. Three research paradigms were studied consistent with those outlined by Schmidt (in press). Schmidt has been vocal in advocating the notion that frequent knowledge of results (KR) degrades learning. In experiment 1 the relative frequency of KR was investigated by employing four frequency conditions with a 5-trial acquisition phase. Summary-KR was studied in Experiment 2, utilizing three different summary lengths with a 15-trial acquisition phase. Finally, the trials-delay procedure was considered in Experiment 3. There were four varieties of delay, each having a total of five KR statements. In all three experiments the task involved a limb movement from left key to right key, performed in a criterion time of 500 milliseconds. All three experiments employed an immediate retention test (10 minutes later) and a delayed retention test (2 days later) to determine if the experimental conditions affected learning.