The Effect of Errorless, Errorful and Random Practices on Learning of the Relative Timing of a Selected Motor Task: An Emphasis on Implicit and Explicit Learning Approaches

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the errorless, errorful and random practice schedules on the acquisition and learning of relative timing in a motor task. 51 male students (age: 22±4 years old) were selected and randomly assigned to four groups (control, errorful, errorless, and random). This study was carried out in five phases: pretest (PRT), acquisition (ACQ), 10-min retention and transfer and 24-hour retention and transfer. In the acquisition phase, a timing task with three different difficulty levels (simple, moderate, and difficult) was practiced in three sessions of 45 trials with feedback by experimental groups. In order to analyze the data, a mixed-design analysis of variance model with repeated measures on each variable was used in the acquisition and retention phases. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used in the other phases. The findings of relative timing showed no significant differences among the groups in the pretest (P˃0.05). Additionally, in retention and transfer tests, errorless group had better performance than errorful, random and control groups (P≤0.05). Errorless group performed better than the random and errorful groups in 24-hour transfer test of the secondary task (P≤0.05). These results showed that practice in errorless conditions leads to a better learning of the task and its generalization to new conditions that are consistent with the implicit learning and reinvestment theories