Historical review and appraisal of research on the learning, retention, and transfer of human motor skills.

This review of human motor skills is historical and critical, and starts about 100 years ago. Three historical periods are identified. The main topics are knowledge of results, distribution of practice, transfer of training, retention, and individual differences in motor learning. Basic research is emphasized, but applied research is included also. The article concludes with projections for the future that are based on past research and the present research climate. Why review nearly a century of research on motor skills? A good experiment can result from bouncing off the last one or a small subset of experiments in the literature, so why bother with the panorama? Any good scientific question always seems to have a long story. Perceptive investigators see the key variables and issues of a scientific topic early, and the generations that follow persist in efforts to understand those variables and issues. The first answer to my question, then, is that a sense of history helps an investigator lock onto important themes. Experiments enriched by history could contribute to the science rather than only brightening an inconsequential corner. Second, a sense of history tends to shunt an investigator away from the fads and fashions of his or her field. Fads and fashions are those inconsequential corners that are temporarily magnified out of proportion and that draw the energy of investigators who either have not seen the worth of persisting themes or who allow themselves to be turned from them. Third, the canons of scholarship are based on history because they require that (a) the origins of ideas be known so that one's own ideas are in perspective and, (b) earlier experiments be known so that the knowledge increment in one's own empirical findings is clear. My aim is to organize variables and issues for learning, retention, and transfer that have regularly attracted investigators of human motor skills, and to discuss the experiments that have been done to understand them. The last historical review of human motor skills was by Irion (1966). My review differs from Irion's in that I cover more material, have a different perspective, and update developments in the field. This article begins with a definition of the domain, and then divides the historical coverage into three historical periods: the Early Period, 1880-1940; the Middle Period, 19401970; and the Present Period, 1970 to the present. The periods are delineated by surges in research activity, although I cannot always be strict about the dividing line. The surge associated