We know from research on physical practice, that there are ways of structuring our practice (like blocked practice1) that lead to faster skill acquisition – or a faster rate of improvement during the practice session itself. But at a cost to how much of our improvements we retain from one practice session to the next (boo).
Conversely, there are other ways of practicing (like variable practice2, or interleaved practice3) that slow down our rate of skill acquisition during practice – but lead to far less forgetting or skill decay from one practice session to the next. And ultimately, more durable learning (yay).
In other words, there’s an “acquisition-retention” paradox with physical practice, in that the faster or more easily we learn something, the faster and more easily we forget.
This study suggests that the same may be true for mental practice as well. And that when variable and interleaved mental practice are combined with a night of sleep, we are able to better perform not just the skills we have mentally practiced, but new skills as well.
Take action
So the next time your head hits the pillow at the end of the day, perhaps you could give yourself a leg up on tomorrow’s practice by taking a few moments to engage in some mental practice. But instead of limiting your visualization session to only a single run-through of a piece, or problem-solving just one particularly thorny section, try rotating through several different passages a few times before zonking out for the night.
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