The purpose of this study was to: (a) examine the effects of three practice schedules on the leaning of three badminton serves in order to further explore the contextual interference (CI) effect, (b) determine the effect of initial expectancy of success and task interest on skill performance using different practice schedules, and (c) study the effects of practicing under different practice schedules on participants' expectancy of success and task interest over time. College students (n=90) practiced three badminton serves (short, long, and backhand) using one of three practice schedules (low, moderate, or high CI), over six practice sessions, and were tested on their performance at the pre-, post-, retention, and transfer tests. Transfer tasks required each serve to be performed from the opposite service court.
The low CI practice group was found to outperform the high CI group at the post-test on the long serve, while the high CI group was found to outperform the low CI group at the retention test on the short and backhand serves. These findings provide partial support for the CI effect. Initial expectancy of success and task interest were found to have an overall effect on participants' overall skill performance (high expectancy/interest > low expectancy/interest), but this influence did not affect the levels of CI differently. Expectancy of success and task interest were also found to both increase over time, but these perceptions did not differ across CI groups. These findings suggest that expectancy of success and task interest do not provide a valid explanation for previous CI results.
Suggestions are made for future studies to consider the importance of task difficulty, effort, and practice time; as well as alternative measurement techniques in the CI paradigm.