Abstract
The present study tested Schmidt's (1975) schema theory by manipulating the variability of initial conditions information given during training on a task requiring anticipation of coincidence. 36 first grade children attempted to tap a padded and hinged target barrier coincident with the lighting of the last of a series of runway lights. Equal numbers of males and females received either variable practice with each of four stimulus velocities (134, 179, 268, and 313 cm/sec.), constant practice with one of the four velocities, or no practice. All subjects were then given trials with two illumination velocities different from those presented during training. Both constant and variable practice groups demonstrated greater accuracy of transfer performance than control subjects, but only the absolute error of constant practice subjects was significantly lower than that of the controls. All groups responded with early anticipations, i.e., negative constant errors, to the slower of the two transfer velocities. Increasing variability of perceptual stimuli in coincidence-anticipation tasks may not give optimal training for young children.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.