| Summary: | This study had as objective to investigate the effects of practice schedule on the adaptive process of motor learning. The experimental design consisted of four practice groups (constant, random, constant-random and random-constant), and two learning phases (stabilization and adaptation). In three experiments, children performed a complex task of coincident timing, in which the varied practice was manipulated in terms of visual stimulus (Experiment 1), movement pattern (Experiment 2), and a combination of both (Experiment 3). In Experiment 1, the constant, constant-random, and random-constant groups showed better performance in the adaptation phase than did the random group. In Experiment 2, the constant and constant-random groups performed better than did the others. And, in Experiment 3, the constant-random group demonstrated better performance than the others. Overall results indicated that, during the adaptive process of motor skill acquisition, constant and constant-random practice, were superior to random and random-constant practice.
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