Abstract
In two experiments, we examined training, retention, and transfer of a duration production skill in a prospective paradigm. Participants were trained with feedback and then were either tested immediately for transfer without feedback or retrained with feedback 1 week later. There were three training and retraining conditions, two involving secondary tasks. Retention of the duration production skill was perfect across the 1-week delay when the secondary task condition was unchanged, but there was no skill transfer when that condition was changed. These findings demonstrate specificity of training, with the assumption that the cognitive operations learned during duration production training incorporate requirements of the secondary task. More generally, this study challenges the current practice in which training conditions often do not match eventual testing conditions.
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This research was supported in part by Army Research Institute Contracts DASW01-96-K-0010, DASW01-99-K-0002, and DASW01-03-K-0002 to the University of Colorado. Experiment 1 was included in J.T.P.’s master’s thesis and was reported at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, 2000, in New Orleans (Parker, Healy, & Bourne, 2000).
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Healy, A.F., Wohldmann, E.L., Parker, J.T. et al. Skill training, retention, and transfer: The effects of a concurrent secondary task. Memory & Cognition 33, 1457–1471 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193378
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193378