An assessment of the attention demands during random- and blocked-practiceschedules

The reported study used the dual-task methodology to assess the attention d emands associated with high and low contextual interference (CI) practice e nvironments. Two specific issues were addressed. First, is there a differen ce in the attention demands during random and blocked schedules of practice ' Second, what is the time course of any differential attention demands tha t emerge during random and blocked training? In order to address these ques tions two specific temporal loci were probed during practice: a pre-respons e interval and the inter-trial interval. It was assumed that the pre-respon se interval contained the reconstructive activity that is central to the re construction position. In contrast, the inter-trial interval has been inter preted in previous work to be the interval in which critical intra- and int er-item processing is performed during random practice. The data revealed a typical CI effect for the primary key-pressing task. Specifically, blocked -practice participants displayed superior performance during training but p erformed less well than the random-practice individuals at the time of rete ntion. The poorer acquisition performance of the random-practice participan ts was associated with higher cognitive demand during both the pre-response and the inter-trial intervals than that of individuals assigned to blocked practice. The greater attention demands for random-practice individuals ar e discussed with respect to processes that might occur in both the pre-resp onse and the inter-trial intervals.