Abstract
Skill learning (SL) is learning as a result of repeated exposure and practice, which encompasses independent explicit (response to instructions) and implicit (response to hidden regularities) processes. Little is known about the effects of developmental disorders, such as Cerebral Palsy (CP), on the ability to acquire new skills. We compared performance of CP and typically developing (TD) children and adolescents in completing the serial reaction time (SRT) task, which is a motor sequence learning task, and examined the impact of various factors on this performance as indicative of the ability to acquire motor skills. While both groups improved in performance, participants with CP were significantly slower than TD controls and did not learn the implicit sequence. Our results indicate that SL in children and adolescents with CP is qualitatively and quantitatively different than that of their peers. Understanding the unique aspects of SL in children and adolescents with CP might help plan appropriate and efficient interventions.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3672-3678 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Research in Developmental Disabilities |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was carried out as part of a PhD dissertation by Moran Gofer-Levi at Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, and was supported by the Kunin-Lunenfeld Fund and the President's Scholarship for outstanding PhD students at the Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Keywords
- Cerebral Palsy (CP)
- Sequence learning
- Serial reaction time (SRT) task
- Skill learning (SL)