| Description |
Prior evidence from several research areas suggests that performance improvements can accrue during intervals that preclude further practice of a procedural skill; however, the mechanism underlying this improvement is unclear. In order to test competing explanations for such improvement, the author investigated the effects of varying the cognitive demands of a secondary task interpolated into a course of cognitive skill practice. The moderately complex skill task that was used presented electrical circuitry operations (logic gates) and their corresponding rules, which participants learned first through declarative instruction and thereafter through multiple blocks of procedural practice. The interpolated task was either a cognitively demanding working memory (WM) test or a noncognitively demanding period spent listening to binaural alpha-wave beats over headphones. Three theory-based explanations for skill improvement during the interpolated task, or gap facilitation, were tested: memory consolidation, release from proactive interference (PI), and mental rest. Each explanation makes unique predictions regarding parameters of a power function used to describe the trajectory of each participant's skill performance before and after the interpolated tasks. Evidence favored release from PI as being responsible for the observed gap facilitation effects. Findings are interpreted with respect to learning theory that predicts performance decline with time away from practice and in light of prior explanations of evidence to the contrary. |
