Effects of early and late rest breaks during training on overnight memory consolidation of a keyboard melody.

In two experiments, we tested the extent to which overnight procedural memory consolidation is affected by extended rest breaks during training. In the first experiment, nonmusicians practiced a 5-element keypress sequence with their nondominant hand in 12 30-s practice intervals separated by 30-s pauses. In the second experiment, nonpianist musicians practiced a 13-note keyboard melody using the same procedures. In both experiments, approximately one-third of the subjects took a 5-min break after the first three blocks of practice; another third took a break after nine blocks of practice; the remaining participants did not take an extended break. All were trained in the evening and were retested the following morning. Participants in both experiments made dramatic improvements over the course of the training and retest sessions, and participants who took an extended rest break early in practice made the largest gains in performance between the end of training and the beginning of retest.