The Effect of Sequential Stimuli Technique on Acquisition, Retention and Transfer of Ocular Motor Sequence

This research aimed to examine the effect of sequential stimuli technique on acquisition, retention and transfer of ocular motor sequence. First sequential stimuli, time record, response error software was designed. 60 right-handed novices (15-18 years) were divided into five groups (blocked – explicit, blocked – implicit, random – explicit, random-implicit and control). All groups performed a pretest and then (except control group) participated in five training sessions and in each session performed three blocks of ten trials with blocked and random methods. In explicit groups, participants were aware of the aim of task but in implicit groups, they were unaware. During the acquisition phase, control group were only in lab environment and the day after the acquisition, participants took part in retention and transfer tests. The data were analyzed using student-t, repeated measures and two-way analysis of variance tests. The finding showed that the subjects significantly improved in accuracy and time of response in the acquisition phase (P>0.05); but there was no significant different among groups. However, implicit learning groups progressed as much as the explicit learning groups; this finding explained the effectiveness of implicit knowledge in motor skills learning. The retention test showed that random practice was better than blocked practice in movement accuracy but the type of practice did not affect the retention of sequential reaction time. In transfer test, all groups showed transfer to the new sequence only in accuracy but not response time. However, findings showed blocked practice led to sensorimotor integration and timing, whereas random practice led to better stimulus-response association. Overall findings of this research supported this idea that learning that occurs in the context of interference can show retention and transfer to another task.