Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31213998›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in human neuroscience2019

Contextual Interference Effect Is Independent of Retroactive Inhibition but Variable Practice Is Not Always Beneficial.

Benjamin Thürer, Sarah Gedemer, Anne Focke, Thorsten Stein

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Benjamin ThürerBrain Signaling Group, Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Sarah GedemerBioMotion Center, Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Anne FockeBioMotion Center, Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Thorsten SteinBioMotion Center, Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Positive effects of variable practice conditions on subsequent motor memory consolidation and generalization are widely accepted and described as the contextual interference effect (CIE). However, the general benefits of CIE are low and these benefits might even depend on decreased retest performances in the blocked-practicing control group, caused by retroactive inhibition. The aim of this study was to investigate if CIE represents a true learning phenomenon or possibly reflects confounding effects of retroactive inhibition. We tested 48 healthy human participants adapting their reaching movements to three different force field magnitudes. Subjects practiced the force fields in either a Blocked (B), Random (R), or Constant (C) schedule. In addition, subjects of the Blocked group performed either a retest schedule that did (Blocked-Matched; BM) or did not (Blocked-Unmatched; BU) control for retroactive inhibition. Results showed that retroactive inhibition did not affect the results of the BU group much and that the Random group showed a better consolidation performance compared to both Blocked groups. However, compared to the Constant group, the Random group showed only slight benefits in its memory consolidation of the mean performance across all force field magnitudes and no benefits in absolute performance values. This indicates that CIE reflects a true motor learning phenomenon, which is independent of retroactive inhibition. However, random practice is not always beneficial over constant practice.

Indexed as

contextual interferenceforce field adaptationmotor adaptationmotor memory consolidationretrograde inhibitionsensorimotor learningvariable practice

Identifiers

PMID31213998
PMCPMC6557302

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.