Self-Controlled Practice of Decision-Making Skills

This study analyzed the effects of self-controlled practice on learning cognitive decision-making skills, focusing primarily on how participants used the time available to them during the practice sessions. 30 college students (10 women) ages 22 to 29 years volunteered to practice the game of tic-tac-toe under one of two conditions, self-controlled practice and a yoked-control condition. Learning and retention performance (game success, mean decision-making time) were assessed on tic-tac-toe game performance before training, immediately, and 3 wk. after training. Analysis showed considerable learning and retention in both groups. No differences were found during acquisition, but the self-controlled practice group had better performance than the yoked-control group on the retention test.