The one-target advantage in the control of rapid aiming movements: The effect of practice

The one-target advantage is the phenomenon that a rapid aimed hand movement is executed faster when it is performed as a single, isolated movement than when it is followed by a second movement. The goal of this experiment was to investigate the robustness of the one-target advantage as a function of practice. We asked twelve participants to perform 40 trials in each of 3 movement conditions (1-tap, 2-tap:extension and 2-tap:reversal) on 10 separate sessions, totalling 400 practice trials in each condition. Results showed a reliable one-target advantage that remained constant over practice. This outcome is consistent with the movement integration hypothesis which attributes the one-target advantage to response implementation processes rather than to on-line programming operations.