Author(s): Savion-Lemieux T; Penhune VB;

The present study assessed the effects of amount of practice and length of delay on the learning and retention of a timed motor sequence task. Participants learned to reproduce ten-element visual sequences by tapping in synchrony with the stimulus. Participants were randomly assigned to a varied-practice condition or a varied-delay condition. In the varie ...

Article GUID: 15551084

Author(s): Penhune V; Watanabe D; Savion-Lemieux T;

This experiment demonstrates that musicians who began training before age seven perform better on a rhythmic tapping task than musicians who began after the age of seven, when the two groups are matched for years of experience. These results support the idea that there may be a sensitive period in childhood for motor training, similar to that observed for ...

Article GUID: 16597774

Author(s): Savion-Lemieux T; Bailey JA; Penhune VB;

Little is known about how children acquire new motor sequences. In particular, it is not clear if the same learning progression observed in adults is also present in childhood nor whether motor skills are acquired in a similar fashion across development. In the present study we used the multi-finger sequencing task (MFST), a variant of the serial reaction ...

Article GUID: 19363605

Author(s): Savion-Lemieux T; Penhune VB;

The contextual interference hypothesis proposes that when learning multiple skills, massing practice leads to better within-day acquisition, whereas random practice leads to better retention and transfer. In this experiment, we examined the effect of practice pattern on the learning, consolidation (retention), and transfer of visual-motor sequences. On Da ...

Article GUID: 20526710