ABSTRACT.According to the challenge point framework,task difficulty has to be appropriate to learner skill level. Thepure blocked or random practice controls the task difficultyduring practice monotonically. Therefore, the purpose of thisstudy was to investigate the effect of algorithm-based practiceschedule and task similarity on motor learning in older adults.For this purpose, 60 older adults were randomly assigned intosix groups of blocked-similar, algorithm-similar, random-simi-lar, blocked-dissimilar, algorithm-dissimilar, and random-dis-similar. Sequential motor tasks were used for learning.Participants practiced absolute timing goals in similar (1350,1500, 1650 ms) or dissimilar (1050, 1500, 1950 ms) conditionsaccording to their practice schedule. Twenty-four hours afterthe acquisition phase, retention, and transfer tests were per-formed. Algorithm-practice was a hybrid practice schedule(blocked, serial, and random practice in forward/backwardswitching) that switching the schedules was according to errortrial number (n33%) in each block based on error range ofabsolute timing goals (± 5%). The results showed that theblocked-practice outperforms the other groups during the acqui-sition phase, whereas the algorithm-practice outperforms theother groups in retention and transfer in both similar and dis-similar conditions. These findings were discussed according tothe challenge point framework.

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