Effect of an audience on learning a novel motor skill

The purpose of this study was to assess effects of an audience on learning a novel motor skill. Subjects (N=64) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions and administered 15 30-sec. trials with 30-sec. int ertrial periods on a pursuit rotor task on two different days. Comparison o f Time-on-Target performance between conditions indicated that the No Audie nce condition had significantly higher performance than the Audience condit ion in Session 1. Comparison of Absolute Retention and Final Retention scor es among the four experimental conditions in Session 2 after 48 hr. yielded no significant differences attributable to the presence of an audience, th us supporting the hypothesis that an audience would have no effect on learn ing.