Effects of a contextual interference continuum on golf putting task

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the contextual interference (CI) effect on learning a golf putting task. PORTER and MAGILL (2004, 2005) conducted studies where they applied a new concept of practice: the contextual interference continuum. The hypothesis is that practicing with gradual increases of CI will lead to better performance on retention and transfer tests that both the blocked and random groups. Forty undergraduate students (N = 48) were randomly assigned to one of four groups: blocked, serial, random, or increasing CI practice schedule. Participants were inexperienced with the task and were blinded to the purpose of the experiment. During the acquisition they putted 126 trails from three distances (2, 2.75 and 3.5 meters) for the same golf hole target. In retention test they performed 30 trials in a random order. In the transfer test the subjects performed 20 trials: 10 at 2.5 meters and 10 to 2.5 meters with 10 degrees of deviation from the starting point towards the hole. The apparatus of this study consisted of one artificial putting indoor golf carpet. All participants putt the same golf ball with the same right-handed putter. The data of retention and transfer tests were analyzed using separate one-way ANOVAs. Although it is observed in the absolute error a trend of superiority of performance of the group or increasing CI practice schedule on transfer test, the analysis didn't reveal a significant main effect for practice conditions. The effect of increasing CI was not found in this experiment.