Abstract
Examining the usefulness of a self-controlled KR context in older adults has received little attention in the motor learning literature and thus remains inconclusive. In this experiment, participants pushed and released a low friction slider to a goal distance of 133cm. Participants were randomly assigned to a self-controlled or yoked practice condition resulting in four experimental groups (SELF-OLD, SELF-YOUNG, YOKED-OLD, YOKED-YOUNG). The retention data showed the SELF-YOUNG group (M=9.08, SD=4.56) performed with less |CE| than the SELF-OLD (M=22.02, SD=9.41), YOKED-YOUNG (M=18.79, SD=8.39) and YOKED-OLD (M=22.83, SD=3.93) groups. We were also interested in determining if a self-controlled KR context would develop a participant's error detection and correction ability. Thus, participants were asked to estimate their perceived outcome of each motor response in the immediate and delayed retention tests. The results showed the SELF-YOUNG group (M=6.53, SD=3.53) was more accurate in estimating their motor performance than the SELF-OLD (M=15.58, SD=4.40), YOKED-YOUNG (M=11.43, SD=2.59) and YOKED-OLD (M=16.17, SD=4.27) groups. Our results suggest that older adults do not demonstrate the same learning benefits as younger adults in a self-controlled KR context and the ability to accurately estimate performance also seems to be age dependent. The self-reported KR strategies and the intrinsic sources of feedback utilized by participants will be discussed to account for our findings.Acknowledgments: Canadian Institutes of Health Research