Rates of learning

A 1999 study by Ferrari, Influence of expertise on the intentional transfer of motor skill, examined how expertise affected the learning of martial art students. Four strategies of practice were observed:

• Practice of whole sequence (30%)
• Practice of cumulative sections by adding new sequences to previously learned sequence (20%)
• Practice of overlapping sections (40%)
• Practice of independent sections (10%)

Results showed that both the expert and novice students remembered the same amount of new material. However, the performance or the experts was rated higher. Experts were better at judging how well they learned the material, and they used the learning material in a more sophisticated and efficient manner. While listening to the students talk, the author found  that 75% of the novices focused on the difficulty of the task as opposed to 40% of the experts. The talking of the expert's was more general and focused more on learning strategies.

In the study, students were also observed while they watched training videos. The results of the video experiment found that both expert and novice students exhibited the same characteristics while watching the videos:

• Watched the video without physically performing movements (75%)
• Imitated the sequence while video was playing (10-15%)
• Stopped the video and mentally reconstructed the movement (10%)