Abstract
Providing participants with self-control over their KR schedule has proven beneficial for the retention and transfer of motor skills. However, the optimal amount of self-control opportunities required to maintain these learning advantages are unknown. In this study, the number of opportunities to request KR following the performance of a serial response timing task was manipulated. The task was to complete a series of key-pressing responses (1-3-4-2-3-1) in a goal time of 2500 milliseconds. Participants (n=32) were divided into four groups that were provided with self-control over 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% (SC20, SC40, SC60 or SC80) of the acquisition trials (80). The participants in four yoked groups (n=32) replicated the same feedback schedule as their self-control counterpart, however without the choice. Twenty-four hours after the last acquisition trial, a retention, a time-transfer (i.e., a new goal time: 3300 ms), and a pattern transfer test (i.e., a new pattern in 2500 ms: 2-1-3-1-4-3) were completed. In the retention period, the SC20 group (160ms) was more consistent than their yoked counterparts (246ms), F(1,14)=4.85, p<0.045. Also, the SC80 group (-38ms) had less timing bias than their yoked control group (-278ms), F(1,14)=3.25, p<0.031. Combined with other results, our findings indicate that learning was influenced by the amount of cognitive efforts devoted to error identification and movement modification during the acquisition period as a function of the proportion of self-control KR trials.
