Effect of past movement experiences on the reproduction of discrete movements

The possible proactive inhibition effect of long-term past experiences upon the reproduction of discrete measurements was investigated. Ten subjects were assigned to each of the eight cells of a 2x2x2 factorial design. The two retention intervals were, 0 sec. and 30 sec; the two locations, 60° and 120°; the two movement lengths, 10° and 50°. Each subject received five standard-reproduction trials with an intertrial interval of 30 sec. The biasing effect of long-term past experiences measured by constant error, was not significant. Different target locations did not influence the intraindividual variability of a given movement length. Significant differences were obtained between movement lengths for both constant error, in that the shorter movement was overshot to a greater extent than the longer movement; and variable error, showing a greater variability for the longer movement. The significant increase in variable error over the retention intervals indicates that the memory trace weakened as time elapsed between the presentation of the standard and its reproduction.Education, Faculty ofCurriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department ofGraduat