INTRODUCTION A process-oriented instrument was developed for the summative assessment of student performance during problem-based learning (PBL) tutorials. This study evaluated (1) the acceptability of the instrument by tutors and (2) the consistency of assessment scores by different raters. MATERIALS AND METHODS A survey of the tutors who had used the instrument was conducted to determine wh...

Procedural skills such as riding a bicycle and playing a musical instrument play a central role in daily life. Such skills are learned gradually and are retained throughout life. The present study investigated 1-year retention of procedural skill in a version of the widely used serial reaction time task (SRTT) in young and older motor-skill experts and older controls in two experiments. The you...

Previous studies have demonstrated that varied practice (involving several versions of a skill) has advantage over constant practice (involving only one version of a skill) in learning a motor skill. However, the support for variable practice mainly came from studies using discrete motor skills. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to assess if variable practice was more effective than const...

Sleep-dependent memory consolidation is observed following motor skill learning: Performance improvements are greater over a 12-h period containing sleep relative to an equivalent interval without sleep. Here we examined whether older adults exhibit sleep-dependent consolidation on a sequence learning task. Participants were trained on one of two sequence learning tasks. Performance was assesse...

Communication is a fundamental element of care at every level of nursing practice. It is important, therefore, for nurse managers to create environments that promote and encourage good communication, and help nurses to develop their communication skills formally and informally. This article discusses the effects of communication on the quality of care. It examines nurses' professional duty to m...

This article describes a neural network model of speech motor skill acquisition and speech production that explains a wide range of data on variability, motor equivalence, coarticulation, and rate effects. Model parameters are learned during a babbling phase. To explain how infants learn language-specific variability limits, speech sound targets take the form of convex regions, rather than poin...

Concurrent feedback provided during acquisition can enhance performance of novel tasks. The 'guidance hypothesis' predicts that feedback provision leads to dependence and poor performance in its absence. However, appropriately structured feedback information provided through sound ('sonification') may not be subject to this effect. We test this directly using a rhythmic bimanual shape-tracing t...

How does the effectiveness of guiding cues influence the development of motor skill autonomy? We utilized two sets of guiding cues (lights vs. reversed-lights conditions) that differed in their effectiveness to control a left-right leverpress sequence in rats. We separately measured the development of stimulus control by panel lights on guiding-cues trials and the development of stimulus contro...