The Role of Contextual Interference and the Degree of Task Similarity on the Motor Programming of the Sequential Motor Task of People with Parkinson's Disease

10.22034/ijmbsp.2023.410810.1079
Volume 3, Issue 1
Spring 2023
Pages 38-50

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Candidate, Department of Motor Behavior, Faculty of Sports Sciences,Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

2 Professor, Department of Motor Behavior, Faculty of Sports Sciences,Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

3 Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of contextual interference and the degree of task similarity on the motor programming of the sequential motor task of people with Parkinson's disease. A total of 64 people with Parkinson's disease (mean age = 62.93 ± 3) participated in this study, who were randomly divided into four equal groups (16 people) including blocked- high similarity/ blocked –low similarity/random-high-similarity/ and random-low similarity were divided. The participants made 180 trials in 12 blocks of 15 trials for three sequential movement tasks. The reaction time in motor programming conditions was measured in three stages of acquisition, immediate retention, delayed retention and delayed transfer. In the acquisition stage, the two (contextual interference) × two (sequence similarity) × 11 (blocks) ANOVA with repeated measures of last factor and for the retention stages of the Two (contextual interference) × two (similarity of sequence) × three (stages) with repeated measures of last factor were analyzed, and for the transfer test from the two (contextual interference) × two (sequence similarity) ANOVA was used. A significance level of 0.05 was used for all steps. The findings of the research show that in the acquisition phase, parkinsonian people in the pattern-high-similarity group perform better than other groups, but the random-high-similarity group perform better in retention, delayed and transfer than other groups, which can be said to be in accordance with the hypothesis of the elaborative processing hypothesis, random practice increases the power of memory representation, but blocked practice does not form deeper processing in memory. It increases the strength of memory representation, but blocking practice does not shape deeper processing in memory. 

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Subjects
  • Receive Date 10 April 2023
  • Revise Date 10 June 2023
  • Accept Date 10 June 2023