A Closer Look At Overlearning.

What does it look like practically: Overlearning can occur in warm up activities. For activities such as soccer, learners can be in pairs with a ball passing between each other. Simple ground passes will be accustomed by most proficient players. It is also a simple skill and a quick activity for players to maintain their passing and alertness for games.

Theoretical basis:

Overlearning can be defined as the ‘continuation of practice beyond the required level needed to achieve a specific performance criterion’ (Spittle, 2013). Overlearning is a tool used to reinforce and maintain the skills of the learner. The purpose of overlearning is then to not increase performance levels but rather to maintain already acquired skill levels (Spittle, 2013). Overlearning can occur immediately after the original learning experience or at later training sessions. Applying over learning at much later dates is referred to as refresher practice. Refresher practice is considered as effective as immediate overlearning (Spittle, 2013). A disadvantage of overlearning is that it is time consuming. Instructors must decide how much time in practice session should be dedicated to overlearning instead of other skills. Utilising overlearning can require additional costs to repeatedly train learners in a particular skill (Driskell, Willis, & Cooper, 1992). The concept of diminishing returns also applies to overlearning. Spittle (2013) defines diminishing returns as more practice not leading to the same level of return as the first learning experience. Reinforcing the idea that performance does not continually drastically increase with overlearning, and will begin to plateau. However, it can still enhance performance and increase proficiency (Driskell et al., 1992). It is recommended that overlearning ratios of 50 to 200 per cent are effective for retention, but also rely upon the skill being practised (Spittle, 2013). Increasing the degree of overlearning will increase the level of retention (Driskell et al., 1992). Overlearning is most effective on discrete, serial and complex skills compared to continuous and simple skills (Spittle, 2013). This is due to complex and simple skills being easier to remember compared to the others (Spittle, 2013). Without continual refresher training, retention is likely to dissipate to zero after about 5 to 6 weeks (Driskell et al., 1992)

For additional reading check out;

Our full depth piece)

- https://joshgosch.wixsite.com/practiceschedules/single-post/2017/03/14/The-Base-Theoretical-basis-for-practice-schedules

Or our references from the articles) -Chapter 15 of Motor Learning and Skill Acquisition by Spittle, M. -"Effect of Overlearning on Retention." in the Journal Of Applied Psychology, 77(5), 615-622. by Driskell, J. E., Willis, R. P., & Copper, C.