Number of Options in a Movement Sequence Affects Learners' Behavior in a Self-Controlled Practice Condition

Self-controlling practice implies a process of decision making, which suggests that the options in a self-controlled practice condition could affect learners. The number of task components with no fixed position in a movement sequence may affect the way learners self-control their practice. A 200-cm coincident timing track with 90 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) — the first and the last LEDs being the warning and the target lights, respectively — was set so that the apparent speed of the light along the track was 1.33 m/sec. Participants were required to touch six sensors sequentially, the last one coincidently with the lighting of the target light (timing task). Group 1 (n = 55) had only one constraint, and were instructed to touch the sensors in any order, except for the last sensor which had to be the one positioned close to the target light. Group 2 (n = 53) had three constraints: the first two and the last sensor to be touched. Both groups practiced the task until timing error was less than 30 msec. on three consecutive trials. There were no statistically significant differences between groups in the number of trials needed to reach the performance criterion, but (a) participants in Group 2 created fewer sequences compared to Group 1, and (b) were more likely to use the same sequence throughout the learning process. The number of options for a movement sequence affected the way learners self-controlled their practice, but had no effect on the amount of practice to reach criterion performance.