Different tasks help improve skills

Variable practice sharpens the brain's memory of most skills better than focusing on a single task.

Variable practice is doing different tasks interleaved with other motor tasks. To understand how variable practice improves the brain's memory of skills, researchers divided 59 American volunteers into different groups. Some were asked to practice a challenging arm movement, while others did the arm movement and other related tasks in a variable practice structure.

It was found that participants in the variable practice group learnt the arm movement better than those who practiced only the arm movement. Among those in the variable practice group, the process of consolidating memory of the skill engaged a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with higher level planning. Among those who practiced only the arm movement, the active part of the brain was the primary motor cortex, which is associated with simple motor learning.

To put it simply, the variable practice involves solving the motor problem anew each time. Just repeating the same thing over and over again as in the constant practice condition, does not need deep processing in the brain.

This study shows that memory retention is better when we engage in challenging tasks that require us to reconstruct the activity.