Effect of rehearsal of temporal and spatial aspects on the long-term retention of a procedural skill

Abstract

The study examined several rehearsal techniques as means of facilitating the retention of a discrete procedural task. 4 rehearsal conditions were defined as: whole task rehearsal, temporal rehearsal, spatial rehearsal, and no rehearsal. All groups were trained for 5 days, given 10 days of no practice, 5 days of rehearsal, 11 more days of no practice, and a retention test. The number of commissive errors showed significant retention differences, with the whole rehearsal group performing best. Omissive errors and reaction time did not show group differences. It was also found that Ss emphasized those metrics of performance which gave the most immediate feedback. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)