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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: How you practice matters for learning skill quickly. SienceDaily Jan. 7, 2014 — Practice alone doesn't make perfect, but learning can be optimized if you practice in the right way, according to new research based on online gaming data from more than 850,000 people. The research, led by psychological scientist Tom Stafford of the University of Sheffield (UK), suggests that the way you practice is just as important as how often you practice when it comes to learning quickly. The new findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Stafford and Michael Dewar from The New York Times Research and Development Lab analyzed data from 854,064 people playing an online game called Axon. Players are tasked with guiding a neuron from connection to connection by clicking on potential targets, testing participants' ability to perceive, make decisions, and move quickly. Stafford and Dewar were interested to know how practice affected players' subsequent performance in the game. Some Axon players achieved higher scores than others despite practicing for the same amount of time. Game play data revealed that those players who seemed to learn more quickly had either spaced out their practice or had more variable early performance -- suggesting they were exploring how the game works -- before going on to perform better. "The study suggests that learning can be improved -- you can learn more efficiently or use the same practice time to learn to a higher level," says Stafford. "As we live longer, and as more of our lives become based around acquiring complex skills, optimal learning becomes increasingly relevant to everyone." Using data collected from people playing games offers a new way for researchers to study learning, and has strong advantages compared to research on learning that is based in the lab. Game data provide insight into a real skill that people presumably enjoy practicing, and detailed data regarding all actions that players take as they learn to play are easily recorded. "This kind of data affords us to look in an unprecedented way at the shape of the learning curve, allowing us to explore how the way we practice helps or hinders learning," says Stafford. Stafford hopes to collaborate with game designers to further investigate the factors that shape optimal learning. Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google: Tweet Other social bookmarking and sharing tools: Share on stumbleupon Share on linkedin Share on pinterest_share Share on blogger Share on digg Share on delicious Share on newsvine | ? Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Association for Psychological Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. Journal Reference: T. Stafford, M. Dewar. Tracing the Trajectory of Skill Learning With a Very Large Sample of Online Game Players. Psychological Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1177/0956797613511466 MLA Association for Psychological Science (2014, January 7). How you practice matters for learning skill quickly. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2014/01/140107093319.htm Related Stories Practice Makes Perfect? Not So Much, New Research Finds (May 20, 2013) — Turns out, that old "practice makes perfect" adage may be overblown. New research finds that a copious amount of practice is not enough to explain why people differ in level of skill in two widely ... > read more Musicians Who Learn a New Melody Demonstrate Enhanced Skill After a Night's Sleep (Apr. 15, 2013) — A new study examining how the brain learns and retains motor skills provides insight into musical skill. Musicians who practiced and learned a new melody and were tested on it again after a night's ... > read more 'Practice' Makes a Perfect Lure for Internet Gambling (Mar. 15, 2013) — New research has studied the behavior of young people lured into Internet gambling through so-called 'free-play' or 'practice' ... > read more Learning Science : Actively Recalling Information from Memory Beats Elaborate Study Methods (Jan. 21, 2011) — Put down those science text books and work at recalling information from memory. That's the shorthand take away message of new research that says practicing memory retrieval boosts science learning ... > read more Why (Smart) Practice Makes Perfect (July 13, 2010) — A new study demonstrates neural basis for observation that practicing several skills in single session works better than narrow drills on one skill. Study also helps define time window for brain's ... > read more Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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