Practice-dependent refinement of motor execution is retained and broadly transferable but constrained by movement direction.

Abstract

Practice enhances motor acuity, enabling movement execution with greater speed and accuracy. However, the learning principles underlying improvements in speed, accuracy, and efficiency remain relatively understudied compared with those supporting motor skill acquisition and adaptation. Here, we examined motor execution in a skill-based practice task to characterize learning, retention, and generalization of motor acuity. Using a gamified two-dimensional racing task, right-handed participants controlled a stylus-driven car along a curved track as quickly and accurately as possible. Across two studies (n = 83 total, 54 females), participants completed 300 training laps on session 1 and returned for session 2 to assess retention and generalization to novel track configurations: one with altered spatial configuration (rotated track) and one requiring movement in the opposite direction of training (reverse track). Movement speed improved rapidly, showing robust though incomplete retention across sessions. Speed improvements generalized substantially to both novel tracks. Accuracy was high at training onset and showed strong retention. However, we observed no evidence of offline gains between sessions. Notably, both speed and accuracy declined transiently for the novel track configurations compared with prior training. Movement efficiency, indexed by path length, was retained and generalized to the rotated track. However, reversing movement direction impaired efficiency, revealing a movement direction effect. This effect persisted when training direction was reversed in a second study, with counterclockwise movements remaining slower and less efficient than clockwise movements. Thus, practice produces durable and broadly transferable motor execution improvements, whereas inherent movement direction biases constrain how improvements generalize across contexts.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The learning principles underlying motor acuity improvements are relatively understudied compared with those in motor skill acquisition and adaptation. Prior work suggests that motor execution improvements show limited generalization. In contrast, we demonstrate that execution-based practice can produce robust, transferable gains, while also revealing a key constraint: inherent movement direction biases that limit generalization. By characterizing learning, retention, and generalization, this work provides insight into how motor acuity improvements compare with skill acquisition and adaptation.