Effects of Presentation- and Test-Trial Training on Acquisition and Retention of Movement End-Location

Abstract
Three groups of 15 governmental employees performed three training trial cycles consisting of six trials each. Training methods differed in emphasis on presentation (p) and test (t) trials performed during each cycle. For one group, a cycle consisted of three p- and three t-trials administered in alternation. For another group, the first five trials of each cycle were p- trials and the sixth was a t-trial. For the last group, the first trial was a p- trial and the next five were t-trials. Group acquisition performance was compared at the last trial of each training cycle, while retention was compared 3 minutes and 24 hours after acquisition. Absolute (unsigned) error revealed that final acquisition was better when training emphasized p-trial repetition or p- and t-trial alternation within cycles. Long-term retention was better when training emphasized t-trial repetition. It was concluded that testing is an effective way to improve long-term retention of motor skill and that improvements could be realized by changing the emphasis of training from presentation to testing. This could be done without added training resource expenditures.

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