The Role of Order of Practice in Learning to Handle an Upper-Limb Prosthesis

Abstract

Bouwsema H, van der Sluis CK, Bongers RM. The role of order of practice in learning to handle an upper-limb prosthesis. Objective: To determine which order of presentation of practice tasks had the highest effect on using an upper-limb prosthetic simulator. Design: A cohort analytic study. Setting: University laboratory. Participants: Healthy, able-bodied participants (N=72) randomly assigned to 1 of 8 groups, each composed of 9 men and 9 women. Interventions: Participants (n=36) used a myoelectric simulator, and participants (n=36) used a body-powered simulator. On day 1, participants performed 3 tasks in the acquisition phase. On day 2, participants performed a retention test and a transfer test. For each simulator, there were 4 groups of participants: group 1 practiced random and was tested random, group 2 practiced random and was tested blocked, group 3 practiced blocked and was tested random, and group 4 practiced blocked and was tested blocked. Main Outcome Measures: Initiation time, the time from the starting signal until the beginning of the movement, and movement time, the time from the beginning until the end of the movement. Results: Movement times got faster during acquisition (P