This article is focused on learning to play violin, but I found it very interesting and perhaps practical to learning to play better pool, so thought I'd share it here:
http://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20146/15906/
Excerpt:
In several studies, some with sports, others with music, people were asked to learn a task (pitching a ball, learning a simple melody) Some people used a block method of practicing and others did random practicing. Those who practiced in blocks improved during the actual practice time, but this did not translate to improvement in performance. In one study, where they tried learning both ways, people felt like blocked practice was better, even though their ultimate performance was measurably better after the random practice! Our general comfort with blocked practice — “it’s an illusion,” Molly said. Though you might improve at a task during practice, you’re less able to carry forth that improvement to the next day.
One idea is to have a gradual ramping up, starting with blocked practice to solidify a task; moving to serial practice, which would mix things up a little; then to random practice, which would mix things up a lot. The random practice forces one to mentally construct the task each time, activating more sensory-motor parts of the brain and more strongly activating the “executive control” part of the brain. “Random practice is much closer to what you have to do in performance,” Molly said.
- Ron
http://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20146/15906/
Excerpt:
In several studies, some with sports, others with music, people were asked to learn a task (pitching a ball, learning a simple melody) Some people used a block method of practicing and others did random practicing. Those who practiced in blocks improved during the actual practice time, but this did not translate to improvement in performance. In one study, where they tried learning both ways, people felt like blocked practice was better, even though their ultimate performance was measurably better after the random practice! Our general comfort with blocked practice — “it’s an illusion,” Molly said. Though you might improve at a task during practice, you’re less able to carry forth that improvement to the next day.
One idea is to have a gradual ramping up, starting with blocked practice to solidify a task; moving to serial practice, which would mix things up a little; then to random practice, which would mix things up a lot. The random practice forces one to mentally construct the task each time, activating more sensory-motor parts of the brain and more strongly activating the “executive control” part of the brain. “Random practice is much closer to what you have to do in performance,” Molly said.
- Ron
