The Comparison of two methods of variability on the learning of golf putting: Contextual Interference and Differential leaning

This study was aimed to compare the effect of two methods of variability (contextual interference and differential learning) on the learning in golf putting. For this purpose, 50 female students (mean age 21.6 ± 1.7) were randomly divided into five groups, including blocked contextual interference (BCI), random contextual interference (RCI), blocked differential learning (BDR), random differential learning (RDR), and control. After a pre-test, participants practiced the putting task for three consecutive days (10 blocks per day, 12 trails each) according to their grouping. Ten minutes and 72 hours after the last practice session, the immediate and delayed retention tests were performed, respectively. Also, the participants completed a transfer test. Results for the retention tests did not show a significant difference between differential learning groups and the random contextual interference group (p > 0.05), while during the transfer phase, differential learning groups showed higher accuracy (p < 0.05). Therefore, the continuous changes in differential learning Probably for reasons like the emergence of the subject and context-dependent attractors also the phenomenon of Stochastic perturbations seems to be more generalizable than the pattern created by contextual interference.