The effect of self-control feedback and type of practice on the learning of relative and absolute timing

In the motor control domain، theoretical models suggest that two distinct، independent mechanisms (the relationship between elements in the movement sequence and the scaling of the individual elements) are involved in action production. So، the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of practice schedules (physical and observational) and feedback schedules (self-control and yoked) on the learning of relative and absolute timing as well as comparing feedback request rate and self-control feedback request strategy during physical and observational practice. The participants (n=120، 21/09±2/438) were randomly assigned to four physical and observational practice (self-control، and yoked KR) groups. The research instrumentations were a sequential timing task and Chiricowsky & Wulf’s questionnaire 2002. The task required the participants to press four keys (2، 4، 6، and8) with regard to relative and absolute timing. They performed 72 trials during the acquisition phase and 12 in retention and transfer phases. A repeated measure analysis، a multi-factorial ANOVA، and a t-test were conducted to analyze the collected data (05/0=α). The analyses demonstrated that during the acquisition (P=0/043)، retention (P=0/001)، and transfer (P=0/001) phases، relative timing errors were lower for the self-control group in comparison to the yoked group. There were no significant differences between the feedback request rate and request strategy of the self-control groups during physical and observational practice (t=0/756، P=0/492). The results of this study indicated that physical and observational practice involves the same cognitive processes.