Influence of abilities on performance during practice: Effects of massed and distributed practice.

Prior research indicates that the influence of abilities on performance may change as a function of practice. The present research examined how learning styles influence the relationship between abilities and task performance. The styles examined were massed vs distributed practice. 209 Ss were asked to complete measures of spatial visualization and perceptual speed. They then practiced a complex skill acquisition task for 4 hrs under conditions that allowed them to pace their rate of practice. Analysis of several dependent measures revealed that perceptual speed contributed to task performance for 33 Ss who massed their practice, whereas spatial visualization contributed to performance for 61 Ss who distributed their practice. The implications of these findings for understanding the role of abilities in skill acquisition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The orthographic neighbourhood frequency effect in French: A letter-case manipulation study.

The neighbourhood frequency effect was investigated by a letter-case manipulation of French words presented in the go/no-go lexical decision task. Accented words were presented both in lower-case letters with written accents and upper-case letters with no written accents, two usual typographies in French. This procedure addressed the stimulus-matching problem by using intraword comparisons as some words have different orthographic neighbourhoods in the two cases. Neighbourhood frequency was varied across case change for half of the words while it was held constant for the other half. The results showed an interaction between letter-case and neighbourhood constancy, so the inhibitory neighbourhood frequency effect could not be attributed to interstimulus comparisons or to typographical change. Implications are discussed in current models of visual word recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two-year-olds learn novel nouns, verbs, and conventional actions from massed or distributed exposures.

Two-year-old children were taught either 6 novel nouns, 6 novel verbs, or 6 novel actions over 1 month. In each condition, children were exposed to some items in massed presentations (on a single day) and some in distributed presentations (over the 2 weeks). Children's comprehension and production was tested at 3 intervals after training. In comprehension, children learned all types of items in all training conditions at all retention intervals. For production, the main findings were that (a) production was better for nonverbal actions than for either word type, (b) children produced more new nouns than verbs, (c) production of words was better following distributed than massed exposure, and (d) time to testing (immediate, 1 day, 1 week) did not affect retention. A follow-up study showed that the most important timing variable was the number of different days of exposure, with more days facilitating production. Results are discussed in terms of 2 key issues: (a) the domain-generality versus domain-specificity of processes of word learning and (b) the relative ease with which children learn nouns versus verbs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reminiscence, drive, and personality theory.

The hypothesis that reminiscence on the pursuit rotor following massed practice should be greater for extraverts than for introverts was tested. The relationship between reminiscence and neuroticism was also investigated. Ss were 50 students, the measure of reminiscence was pursuit-rotor learning, and the personality measures were derived from the Maudsley Personality Inventory. The hypothesis was confirmed, and reminiscence was also found to be significantly greater for Ss high in neuroticism. 34 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of practice on aptitude scores.

Investigated long-range effects of practice on the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB). The design involved testing a sample of employees of State Employment Security agencies with the GATB and dividing this sample into 3 subsamples, subsequently retested with an alternate form after 1 (N = 302), 2 (N = 288), and 3 yr. (N = 306). Major findings were: (1) significant practice effects for all aptitudes for each subsample, (2) evidence that initial level is a factor in the size of increase for 2 aptitudes, and (3) no deterioration in size of relationship between initial testing and retesting for any aptitude over the time span of the study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental manipulation of therapeutic conditions.

The authors explore the heretofore vague "something more" attributed to the therapeutic relationship by experimentally demonstrating the effect of just 2 almost universally posited therapist-offered conditions which make for a "meaningful" interpersonal relationship, warmth and empathic understanding, upon 1 critical aspect of patient behavior in therapy, patient intrapersonal exploration. The authors characterize the therapeutic relationship as a stimulus complex within which the relearning process takes place most deeply and most efficaciously. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of surface friction on skilled performance with bare and gloved hands.

"The major purpose of this study was to assess the effects of surface friction upon three criterion measures of manipulatory performance: (a) prehension force, (b) time per transport, (c) total number of transports. These measurements were considered as indices of the following aspects of performance: (a) effort, (b) speed, (c) output rate." Results: a close relation of decreased surface friction and increased prehension force, obscured data on performance speed, and less output rate only at very low friction values. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental manipulation of continuous speech in schizophrenic patients.

A method was developed for obtaining extended continuous speech samples from hospitalized schizophrenics. 1 group was reinforced for self-referred affect statements, 1 group for speech in general, and 1 group served as a no-reinforcement control. The effect of reinforcement proved specific to the response class reinforced, whether narrow (self-referred affect statements) or more general (total speech output). The conditioning process progresses from broad classes to the particular one on which reinforcement is contingent. The problem of respons-class identification and other implications of the findings are discussed. (36 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differentiating visual and kinesthetic imagery in mental practice.

Through two experiments, the study sought to emphasize the usefulness of the visual and kinesthetic imagery in mental practice. In Experiment 1, it was hypothesized that when the task to be learned through mental practice necessitates the reproduction of a form by drawing, the visual image, which provides a wide span of apprehension, is more suitable than the kinesthetic image. On the other hand, the kinesthetic image that supplies inputs from the muscles' positions and movements should be more appropriate for the acquisition of the duration of the drawing. In Experiment 2, it was hypothesized that the task, transformed into a motor task necessitating minute coordination of the two hands, would benefit more from kinesthetic imagery. To have optimal control over what was actually experienced during mental practice, the participants' imagery skills were measured. The participants also benefited from prior imagery training. The results demonstrate that when using mental practice to initially acquire a task, visual imagery is better for tasks that emphasize form while kinesthetic imagery is better for those tasks that emphasize timing or minute coordination of the two hands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of recent practice on task switching.

Four experiments investigated the effect of recent selective practice on the cost of switching between 2 tasks afforded by letter-digit pairs: alphabet arithmetic and shape comparison. Experiments 1 and 2 found a greater cost associated with switching to the more recently practiced task: evidence that task-set inertia contributes to switching costs. Experiment 3 found this effect to be limited to trials on which a recently trained stimulus followed another such stimulus: a result problematic for all current theories of task-set priming. Experiment 4 showed that the effect of recent practice was eliminated by active preparation for a task switch: It appears that endogenous task-set preparation reduces the effects of task-set inertia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of repeated practice and contextual-writing experiences on college students' writing skills.

The authors examined the effects of both general and task-specific writing experiences on college students' writing-skill development. On the basis of theories of expertise development and a cognitive process theory of writing-skill development, the authors predicted that repeated practice would be associated with superior writing skills and that after controlling for repeated practice, writing within a specific task domain would be associated with superior writing skills. Undergraduate students participated in a field experiment in which 279 students practiced their writing skills in a professionally relevant task domain, whereas another group of 385 students practiced their writing skills in a more general domain. The results were consistent with the predictions. The authors discuss implications for teaching writing skills and for general theories of expertise development in writing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensorimotor prediction and memory in object manipulation.

Notes that when people lift objects of different size but equal weight, they initially employ too much force for the large object and too little force for the small object. However, over repeated lifts of the two objects, they learn to suppress the size–weight association used to estimate force requirements and appropriately scale their lifting forces to the true and equal weights of the objects. Thus, sensorimotor memory from previous lifts comes to dominate visual size information in terms of force prediction. Here the authors ask whether this sensorimotor memory is transient, preserved only long enough to perform the task, or more stable. After completing an initial lift series in which they lifted equally weighted large and small objects in alternation, 24 18–28 yr olds then repeated the lift series after delays of 15 min or 24 hrs. In both cases, participants retained information about the weights of the objects and used this information to predict the appropriate fingertip forces. This preserved sensorimotor memory suggests that participants acquired internal models of the size–weight stimuli that could be used for later prediction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of practice on variability, effects of variability on transfer.

Five experiments examined how practice early in skill acquisition affected variability and accuracy during skill retention (Experiments 1-5) and skill transfer (Experiments 3, 4, 5). Lag constraints required that each path from apex to base of a computer-generated pyramid display differ from some number (the lag) of immediately prior paths. Location constraints specified end points at which paths must exit the pyramid. In all experiments, an early optimal period for acquiring a variability level was identified. Both low and high levels of variability were sustained during retention; high levels facilitated transfer. The results suggest that (a) early practice that requires high variability sensitizes learners to changes in condition and (b) such perception-performance links facilitate transfer by activating appropriate alternative strategies/schema or initiating their construction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Managing a new collaborative entity in business organizations: Understanding organizational communities of practice effectiveness.

Companies worldwide are turning to organizational communities of practice (OCoPs) as vehicles to generate learning and enhance organizational performance. OCoPs are defined as groups of employees who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic and who strengthen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on a consistent basis. To date, OCoP research has drawn almost exclusively from the community of practice (CoP) literature, even though the organizational form of CoPs shares attributes of traditional CoPs and of organizational teams. Drawing on Lave and Wenger's (1991) original theory of legitimate peripheral participation, we integrate theory and research from CoPs and organizational teams to develop and empirically examine a model of OCoP effectiveness that includes constructs such as leadership, empowerment, the structure of tasks, and OCoP relevance to organizational effectiveness. Using data from 32 OCoPs in a U.S.-based multinational mining and minerals processing firm, we found that external community leaders play an important role in enhancing OCoP empowerment, particularly to the extent that task interdependence is high. Empowerment, in turn, was positively related to OCoP effectiveness. We also found that OCoPs designated as “core” by the organization (e.g., working on critical issues) were more effective than those that were noncore. Task interdependence also was positively related to OCoP effectiveness. We provide scholars and practitioners with insights on how to effectively manage OCoPs in today's organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perspectives on ethical practice with people who have disabilities.

An estimated 49.7 million people in the United States live with one or more disabilities, representing nearly 20% of the 257.2 million individuals ages 5 and older in the civilian population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003). Most psychologists are likely to have the opportunity to work with clients who have disabilities (R. Olkin, 2002) and need the competencies to provide ethical services to this growing proportion of the population. What constitutes ethical practice with people with disabilities? First, the ethical issues involved in providing services for people with disabilities are outlined, and 2 vignettes and a number of questions for practitioners and educators are presented. Then, 3 invited experts provide commentaries that address these issues, raise additional questions, and provide important resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of task complexity and practice on performance after loss of sleep.

An experiment was conducted to assess the effects of degrees of task complexity and practice on performance after loss of sleep. The Ss were automatically presented every 7 sec. for 23 min., with cards containing 6 symbols. A symbol had to be chosen on the basis of certain rules. Some cards required 1 rule, some 2, some 3, and some 4. Group 1 was practiced after normal sleep and tested after 22 and 46 hr. without sleep. Group 2 was tested without sleep and without previous practice. Group 3 was practiced and tested after normal sleep. Loss of sleep had a greater effect after practice, but no clear differences emerged between the different levels of task complexity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Object manipulation and motion perception: Evidence of an influence of action planning on visual processing.

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated the bidirectional coupling of perception and action in the context of object manipulations and motion perception. Participants prepared to grasp an X-shaped object along one of its 2 diagonals and to rotate it in a clockwise- or a counterclockwise direction. Action execution had to be delayed until the appearance of a visual go signal, which induced an apparent rotational motion in either a clockwise- or a counterclockwise direction. Stimulus detection was faster when the direction of the induced apparent motion was consistent with the direction of the concurrently intended manual object rotation. Responses to action-consistent motions were also faster when the participants prepared the manipulation actions but signaled their stimulus detections with another motor effector (i.e., with a foot response). Taken together, the present study demonstrates a motor-visual priming effect of prepared object manipulations on visual motion perception, indicating a bidirectional functional link between action and perception beyond object-related visuomotor associations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in practice patterns and income among psychologists in professional practice.

Income, an important facet of professional psychological practice, differs by gender. The potential sources of income differences among California clinical psychologists were investigated. Full-time female psychologists earned significantly less income on average than full-time male psychologists, despite similar patient demographics, caseloads, practice profiles, and payment sources. In separate regression models, professional experience increased income more for men than for women, whereas greater psychologist supply decreased income for both groups. According to the regression model, if female psychologists were paid like male psychologists, they would receive, on average, $16,440 more per year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Technology and independent practice: Survey findings and implications.

Today's rapid rate of technology change introduces both opportunities and challenges for psychologists. A Technology and Practice Questionnaire was sent to 1000 psychologists in independent practice, half of whom were contacted by e-mail and the other half by U.S. mail. A total of 237 of the 433 deliverable surveys sent by U.S. mail were returned (54.7% response rate), but only 49 of the 458 deliverable surveys sent by e-mail (12.9% response rate). Respondents were asked to rate the frequency of 51 behaviors in their practice and to indicate whether the behavior is ethical. The results suggest a relatively low rate of technology use among independent practitioners and a high degree of ethical uncertainty regarding the use of various technologies in practice. Implications for training and practice are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in item manipulation span: The case of letter-number sequencing.

The authors report 2 experiments in which they examined age differences in working memory tasks involving complex item manipulation (i.e., letter-number sequencing). In Experiment 1, age differences on tasks involving item manipulation were not greater than age differences on tasks requiring recall of items in the order in which they appeared, suggesting that older adults do not have difficulty with item manipulation per se. In Experiment 2, slower presentation rates increased age differences in item manipulation spans, although age differences at the fastest rate may be attributed to differences in strategy use. In both experiments, age differences were largest when participants were most likely to be remembering familiar sequences, suggesting that older adults may have difficulties dampening the representations of such sequences once they are activated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)