Résumé
Optimizing practice schedules within rhythmic tasks remains underdeveloped. Fifty-nine participants practiced a rhythmic task wherein four fingers were used to depress keyboard keys in synchrony with sequential visual prompts paired with an auditory metronome. Participants were assigned to one of three groups. The unstructured break group took two-minute breaks between acquisition blocks. The patterned break group took two-minute breaks between acquisition blocks with the auditory metronome playing continuously to provide augmented feedback of the rhythmic aspect of the task. The no-breaks control group completed all acquisition trials in rapid succession (massed practice). The primary dependent variables were temporal error and temporal error variability. We hypothesized that both break groups would have lower temporal error and temporal error variability for each finger at the post-test vs. the control group. If providing augmented auditory feedback during breaks enhances the effectiveness of distributed practice, there may be lower temporal errors and temporal error variability in the post-test for the patterned vs. unstructured break groups. For temporal errors, the middle, ring, and pinky finger improved from pre-test to post-test irrespective of group. Compared to the control group, the unstructured breaks group had lower middle and pinky finger temporal error variability. Middle, ring, and pinky finger temporal error variability was also lower in the unstructured breaks vs. the patterned breaks group. No differences were found between the control vs. the patterned breaks groups. These results suggest that taking short breaks may facilitate performance over augmented (patterned) and no-breaks when practicing a sequential rhythmic task.
