The beneficial influence of forgetting on shorterm retention of movement information

An experiment is reported that examines the possibility that forgetting may enhance short-term retention of movement information. The design of the study entailed presenting a repetition of the movement information either immediately after a criterion was presented or following an interval of attention-demanding activity. Subsequent recall revealed considerably less variable error under delayed repetition conditions relative to immediate repetition conditions. Appropriate control conditions confirmed that more forgetting of the criterion movement information had occurred prior to the delay as compared to the immediate repetitions. These results were discussed in terms of the potential benefits of forgetting on processes involved in movement representation and the potential relation of these results to contextual interference and the effects of some KR variables in motor learning.