The effects of practice schedule on learning a complex judgment task

• Published in: Learning and instruction Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 126 - 136
• Main Authors: Helsdingen, Anne S., van Gog, Tamara, van Merriënboer, Jeroen J.G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: Drills (Practice); Evaluative Thinking; Judgment; Learning; Practice schedule; Retention (Psychology); Scheduling; Transfer; Transfer; Practice schedule; Judgment
• ISSN: 0959-4752; 1873-3263
• DOI: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2009.12.001

The effects of practice schedule on learning a complex judgment task were investigated. In Experiment 1, participants' judgment accuracy on a retention test was higher after a random practice schedule than after a blocked schedule or operational schedule. Experiment 2 demonstrated that judgment on a transfer test was also better after a random practice schedule than after a blocked schedule. Both experiments failed to show any effects of practice schedule on performance during learning. These findings show that benefits of random practice for retention and transfer apply to learning a complex judgment task, and may be achieved without performance degradation during practice.