Quiz 17: The Amount and Distribution of Practice

In the study by Schendel and Hagman (1982), the machine gun assembly-disassembly skill that was shown to benefit from overtraining is an example of a(n): A) Procedural skill B) Continuous skill C) Dynamic skill D) Open skill

When increasing the amount of practice beyond a certain point does not lead to results proportionally beneficial for learning, the practice has reached a point of: A) Diminishing returns B) Limited benefit C) Overpractice D) Saturation

Although research evidence supports overlearning as an effective practice strategy for learning, it is important to remember that the amount of practice is: A) Next in importance to variability for influencing skill learning B) Not a critical variable influencing skill learning C) Not the most critical variable influencing skill learning D) The most critical variable influencing skill learning

Practice schedule A involves two 1-hour practice sessions on each of three days, while schedule B involves one 1-hour practice session on each of six days. In this scenario, schedule A would be referred to as: A) Blocked practice B) Distributed practice C) Massed practice D) Random practice

Baddely and Longman (1978) compared various massed and distributed training schedules for training postal workers and found the worst schedule for learning to be: A) 2-hour sessions twice a day for 3 weeks B) 2-hour sessions once a day for 6 weeks C) 1-hour sessions twice a day for 6 weeks D) 1-hour sessions once a day for 12 weeks

Which of the following best describes a general rule about practice distribution schedules for the length and distribution of practice sessions? A) Distributed practice schedules are better B) Massed practice schedules are better C) Both schedules lead to the same amount of learning D) The rule would depend on the type of skill being learned

Raoul practiced a skill for 30 seconds and then rested for 5-seconds between trials. Scarlett practiced the same skill for 30 seconds and rested for 40-seconds between trials. Which of the following best describes their practice situation: A) Raoul's practice is distributed; Scarlett's is massed B) Raoul's practice is massed; Scarlett's is distributed C) Both are in a massed practice condition D) Both are in a distributed practice condition

A limitation of research investigating massed vs. distributed practice is: A) Too many practice trials B) Inappropriate tasks to be learned C) Retention intervals that are not sufficiently long D) The lack of a retention or transfer test

Which of the following statements are true? A) Continuous skills are learned better with massed schedules; discrete skills are learned better with distributed schedules B) Continuous skills are learned better with distributed schedules; discrete skills are learned better with massed schedules C) Both continuous and discrete skills are learned better with massed schedules D) Both continuous and discrete skills are learned better with distributed schedules

When massed practice hinders the learning of continuous skills, the most probable cause is: A) Boredom B) Anxiety C) Fatigue D) Confusion

Although the experiment involving the training of U.S. Army soldiers to assemble and disassemble a machine gun found that both the immediate overtraining and the "refresher" overtraining yielded similar beneficial retention results, they recommended the use of the ________ overtraining procedure.

In the research study involving fifth-grade students who were learning a football skill, a comparison of teacher-designed and student-designed practice formats showed that the _______ format led to better learning of the skill.

The experiment by Shea and Kohl found that for learning a task that required the participants to use a specified amount of _______, overlearning resulted in poorer learning than less practice.

Research has shown that the general guideline for establishing the frequency of practice sessions is that [more and shorter] or [fewer and longer] sessions are preferable.

If intertrial intervals are shorter than the length of a practice trial, then the practice schedule is considered to be a ________ schedule.

Learning _______ skills seems to be hindered by practice in a distributed schedule.

The term overlearning refers to engaging learners in additional practice after they have achieved a specified performance criterion.

Research has shown that the overlearning strategy benefits the learning of all types of motor skills.

The classic study by Longman and Baddeley, which involved the training of postal workers to perform a keyboarding skill, demonstrated that distributed practice is better for learning than massed practice when it applies to the length and distribution of practice sessions.

The results of the experiment by Dail and Christina in which novice golfers practiced putting, the massed practice group accurately predicted their retention test performance during the practice trials.

When the study of practice distribution refers to the length of the intertrial interval during a practice session, there is general agreement about the definitions of the terms massed and distributed.

When the study of practice distribution refers to the length of the intertrial interval, one of the problems has been that researchers have generally failed to consider the relationship of the type of skill to the practice distribution effect.

Massed intertrial interval schedules lead to better learning for continuous skills than distributed schedules.