The Effects of Variable Practice and Subjective Estimation on Error-Detection Capabilities

Ypsilanti, Michigan ii DEDICATION A dedication is made four times to those whose support made a tremendous impact on the completion of this thesis project: To Mom (Pat) Ward. Your encouragement and belief in me gave me the courage to try. To my husband, Doug. Your quiet support and long patience was certainly a gift of love. To Murali Nair. The most positive, supportive, and patient professor. Thank you for picking up the pieces and then some. To my Higher Power, with whom all things can happen. iii ABSTRACT Retention and transfer for ballistic open motor skills may best be achieved through specific + variable practice along with error estimation. Inconsistent support for the variability of practice hypothesis warrants a cross-testing of this hypothesis. Estimation had been used and found beneficial on ballistic closed motor skills, but what about ballistic open motor skills? This study tests ballistic open motor skills on an anticipation timer. Specific and specific + variable practice groups coupled estimation and no-estimation conditions for testing purposes. The results indicated that although there were no significant differences during acquisition, significant differences did exist for retention and transfer in support of the variability of practice hypothesis. In conclusion, no particular practice condition aided learning during acquisition. Specific practice was more beneficial for retention, which did not support S+V-enhancing retention. And finally, estimation and S+V practice benefited transfer, which supports the variable of practice hypothesis.