Essay: Practice variability

Introduction
Practice variability is a motor control theory that uses variety of movement and context characteristics so the learner has increased experiences while practicing a specific skill.3 It has been predicted that the amount of movement varied practice that occurs during the practicing of a skill, allows future performance to have successful effects.1 Increased capability of the individual within a specific situation is gained when practice situations promote variability with inconsistent practice movements to allow experience to be obtained.1
Shea and Morgan research (1979) has found that variability within practice is important for learning to occur.3 In this study it was found that error detection improved in the individual as a result of variable practice through the use of the recognition schema.3 Although there is a brief decline during the acquisition of the skill, random or serial practice has a greater influence on learning.3 Another study from Sherwood (1996) showed that blocked variable practice was less effective than the use of random variable practice with the implementation of a rapid aiming movement over varied ranges.3 Sherwood’s study was later replicated with the collaboration of Sherwood and Green (2000), where rapid timing was assessed with varying movement duration.3 This suggested that higher levels of contextual interference were due to the implementation of random variable practice rather than blocked practice.3 In another study, it was found that there was a significantly increased improvement in those that participated in variable practice than those that performed constant practice.4 But during this study it was found that in practice, low performance was produced in comparison to the constant practice group, who had higher performance outcomes.4 This shows that variable practice is important in the learning process in order for the individual to transfer skills learned in practice to future tests. It therefore enables performers to gain experience for new skills as this results in greater cognitive exertion.3,4
For a new skill to be learnt the use of practice variability can be implemented to gain experience from some skill concepts that have already been learnt through practice.1 Cutting is a skill that can be improved with the use of practice variability.5,3 While performers undertake variability of practice, more errors are produced during learning and practice, but the learner is more accurate when performing future tests overall.3,2 Those that do not experience varied practice, perform better while practicing and learning but often do not perform as well in future tests compared to those that use varied practice.3
Methodology
A motor control intervention program for improving the skills of year 2 children (approximately 7 years old) can be put into place to increase their fine motor skills such as cutting with scissors.5 These skills need to be appropriate for the child’s learning stage to ensure that they are capable to undertake certain cutting tasks.5 Students around 7 years of age have basic scissor skills and usually have the basic understanding of how to cut simple lines and shapes.5 This may be the case, but accuracy of this skill is usually not gained at this age as they have difficulty cutting along precise lines.5 Cutting is a complex bilateral task which means more practice is needed to achieve an increase in cutting skills.5 For children in this age group, straight line designs are less complicated to cut out than shapes that have curves or sharp angles.5 Another crucial element of cutting is the thickness of the line and the type of line that is presented to the child.5 Thicker lines allow children the increased ability to stay on the lines and allow them to develop cutting skills and also maintain interest.5 Fluctuations in cutting occur when the line presented to the child is too thick and this will produce a negative result when they are then presented with thinner lines as progressions.5 Children can receive their own visual feedback while cutting along lines and correct mistakes in future cutting instances to increase their progressions in activities that require accurate cutting skills.5 This allows the child to optimally increase their precision in future circumstances through various experiences they have been presented with.5 Children require the exposure to different tasks to achieve more mature and skilled patterns to their performance and to adapt to other stimuluses.5 Variability of practice will allow young individuals to gain experience through the use of different practice methods that are randomised to encourage learning patterns to become apparent.1,2,4 It is important when undertaking a fine motor skill program that the children are engaged and interested while practicing to stimulate their learning.5 This will increase their participation so they continue to progress through the tasks.5 This program will allow children to gain experience through random practice methods, irrespective of their current ability, to apply skills learnt through these sessions to daily fine motor skill tasks.1,2,5
A pre-test is undertaken to reveal the current skills of the child and also allows a comparison to be made after practice is undertaken.1 This pre-test can display the current cutting skills of the child and also record the accuracy of the cuts made.1 This pre-test will consist of 3 straight lines of varying thickness, 3 curved lines of varied thickness, 2 circles and 2 squares of varied thickness and 1 simple picture. These lines will be on a regular A4 piece of paper. A preview of this pre-test is available below.
Pre-Test
In practice sessions a moderate to high contextual interference will be undertaken to promote the child’s learning of task variations.1 This will include random patterns of practice to engage the performer in more strategies.1 This allows the performer to maintain skill variations within their working memory and engages them in more problem solving.1 This then allows the child to develop a memory representation of all the skills learnt in practice.1
Cutting is a closed skill as it is initiated by the performer and regulatory conditions within a practice session should stay the same.1 On the other hand, non-regulatory conditions should vary in each practice session.1 The regulatory conditions of this task will be, the type of scissors that are used, the hand used by the child and the time they take part in each task (15 minutes for each individual task with 2 tasks per day, 30 minutes all together). The non-regulatory conditions that will be varied is the material used e.g. cardboard or paper, the kind of shapes or lines used and the pressure of others watching. The first 2 weeks of the practice sessions will be different stimulus every time. From week 3 to 4 the sessions previously done in the first 2 weeks will be randomly repeated. These practice sessions could also be continued longer than 4 weeks, with sessions randomly selected to improve accuracy.
Practice Session Outline
Week 1 session 1
Task 1: In the first session children will undertake cutting exercises involving straws and playdough. In this session the performers will cut the stimulus how they like, to gain experience with different resistances of materials.5 This will build the strength of their hand and allow them to cut through other items such as cardboard when presented with the task.5
Task 2: The next task following will be cutting out regular shapes e.g. squares and circles with varying line thickness. This will allow them to experience the accuracy required for each individual shape and line thickness, thin line needing more accuracy then thick lines.5
Week 1 session 2
Task 1: In this session participants will take part in cutting larger sized shapes on regular paper. This task allows them to engage their focus for a longer period of time for the item to be cut out.5
Task 2: Following this they will be cutting pictures from magazines. This will allow them to determine and follow their own cutting guide. This gives them the chance to experiment different cutting patterns.5
Week 2 session 1
Task 1: In this session children will be able to experience cutting on paper plates with a continuous spiral pattern. The use of paper plates allows them to gain skills due to the greater resistance of the material. This builds their dominant hand muscles and which could further lead to increased control over the scissors.5
Task 2: They will then participate in cutting shapes that have smaller angles which will create greater control and manageability of the scissors position.5
Week 2 session 2
Task 1: The children will start this session with more complex shapes such as animal outlines which have straight and curved lines throughout. This will allow them to slowly progress and increase the scissor manoeuvrability.5
Task 2: They will then move to the next task of cutting out various shapes on cardboard. This again increases their ability to cut through materials of various resistances.5
Week 3 session 1
Task 1: Cutting shapes with small angles.
Task 2: Cutting straws and playdough how they like.
Week 3 session 2
Task 1: Cutting out magazine pictures.
Task 2: Cutting shapes on cardboard.
Week 4 session1
Task 1: Cutting shapes on regular A4 paper.
Task 2: Cutting a large spiral on a regular plate.
Week 4 session 2
Task 1: Cutting large shapes on regular paper.
Task 2: Cutting complex pictures.
After all weeks of the practice sessions have been completed, a post test will be done to assess the improvements of the children’s scissors skills.1 This test will be the same as the pre-test to compare the first test to the post test after all practice has been undertaken.1 This will measure the effectiveness of the program in whether it was successful in improving children’s cutting accuracy and adaptability.1 Due to the nature of the practice sessions, the leaners should perform this test better than the pre-test due to the variability of the practice to increase performance.1
A retention test is used to determine whether the children have retained the skills needed in regards to the task after they have learned and practiced the skill.1 This will be tested after 2 weeks after the 4-week practice period. The higher the retention in the participants the more successful the variable was in the learning phase.1
Conclusion
Variability of practice has been proven in various settings to be effective in learning certain skills by gaining experience through the variation in stimulus provided.1,2,3,4 Through the use of moderate to high contextual interference the individual can gain the problem solving skills that allow them to increase their experience to unknown or difficult tasks.1,2,4 This then allows them to become more advanced than those that are not exposed to different stimulus for the skill attempting to be improved.2,3,4 Through the use of the pre and post-tests it can be determined whether variability of practice has been effective in improving the skills of the individual in regards to cutting accuracy.1 Overall variability of practice is a useful and effective way for novices to learn and transfer skills through the implementation of varied stimuluses and experiences.1,2,3,4