High Levels of Contextual Interference Enhance Handwriting Skill Acquisition.

The authors conducted 3 experiments to examine whether introducing high levels of contextual interference is useful in handwriting skill acquisition. For all experiment, elementary school students (Ns = 44. 50), and 78, respectively) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 practice schedules-blocked or random practice-in the acquisition phase. In the blocked condition, each of 3 letters (h, a. and y) or (in Experiment 1) symbols was handwritten 24 limes consecutively. In the random condition, each let-ter (or symbol) was practiced 24 Limes, but in an intermixed, unsystematic sequence. Overall, the results showed that the random practice schedule leads to enhanced retention and transfer performance of handwriting skill acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]