Background

Interference effects have repeatedly been demonstrated for simple motor tasks but not for the complex whole-body task of balancing. It was therefore assumed that different balance tasks are so specific that they do not elicit interacting adaptations; neither in a positive (contextual interference) nor in a negative way (disruption of motor consolidation).

Research question

Is a novel balancing task susceptible to interference if a similar balance task is learned shortly afterwards?

Methods

The common A₁-B-A₂ interference intervention design was applied. Participants were assigned to one of four intervention groups that differed with respect to task B. All four groups performed postural task A on a rocker board device (6 series of 8 trials of 8 s). Shortly after completion of task A, participants performed their respective task B (postural wobble board (P-WB), ballistic force, accuracy) or rested (control group). 24 h later, all groups performed a retention test of task A consisting of one series of 8 trials. To test for interference, we calculated repeated mixed design analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).

Results

For the retention test, the ANCOVA revealed a significant TIME*GROUP interaction (p = .010), which was followed up by separate Bonferroni-corrected post-hoc tests for each group. These tests showed a significant performance decrease for the P-WB group (p = .016) but no change in performance for the other three groups.

Significance

In contrast to previous findings, our results indicate that the complex whole-body task of balancing is susceptible to interference, but only, when task B consists of a similar balance task. This is of great functional relevance as for example fall prevention programs incorporate many different balance tasks to prepare participants for all sorts of situations. In such interventions, it seems therefore advisable to apply a random instead of a blocked practice design.

中文翻译：

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再谈平衡任务的干扰：后续学习类似姿势任务会削弱新平衡任务的合并

背景

对于简单的运动任务，已经反复证明了干扰作用，但对于复杂的整体平衡任务却没有。因此，假定不同的平衡任务是如此具体，以至于它们不会引起相互作用的适应。既不是正面的（上下文干扰），也不是负面的（破坏电机合并）。

研究问题

如果不久之后又学会了类似的平衡任务，那么新的平衡任务是否容易受到干扰？

方法

应用了常见的A ₁ -BA ₂干扰干预设计。参与者被分配到与任务B不同的四个干预组之一。所有四个组在跷板设备上执行姿势任务A（6个系列，共8个试验，共8 s）。任务A完成后不久，参与者执行了各自的任务B（姿势摆盘（P-WB），弹道力，准确性）或休息了（对照组）。24小时后，所有小组都对任务A进行了保留测试，包括一系列8个试验。为了测试干扰，我们计算了协方差（ANCOVA）的重复混合设计分析。

结果

对于保留测试，ANCOVA显示出显着的TIME * GROUP交互作用（p = .010），随后进行了每组单独的Bonferroni校正的事后测试。这些测试表明P-WB组的性能显着下降（p = .016），而其他三组的性能没有变化。

意义

与以前的发现相反，我们的结果表明，复杂的全身平衡任务很容易受到干扰，但是仅当任务B由相似的​​平衡任务组成时。这具有很大的功能相关性，例如，防摔计划结合了许多不同的平衡任务，以使参与者为各种情况做好准备。因此，在此类干预措施中，建议采用随机而不是封闭的练习设计。