Testing performance is important, but not as important as testing performance accurately. Many factors can influence the accuracy of a test. All factors are important, some are really simple to control. In this post we’re going to cover the simple, but important consideration of learning effects: identifying and limiting learning effects in your strength tests.
What are Learning Effects?
Learning effects refers to improvements in performance that occur because the individual has become more familiar with the task or testing procedure, not because of actual physical improvement. The person being tested not only understands better what to do, but becomes more practiced at doing it.
In the context of strength testing, think about the first time that you were tested, or perhaps the first time you did a 5RM/< in the gym. It probably took, a few attempts to get to your true maximal whilst you explored the parameters of the test and felt comfortable in blasting away.
Just a note here that learning effects aren’t just constrained to the participant / person being tested, they can also be apply to you the assessor. A lack of familiarity with testing in general, or a particular test set up can influence the scores that you observe. That’s why practice is so important – so that you can become consistent.
Why Do Learning Effects Matter?
Learning effects matter because they can distort the results, and this especially matters when we’re testing individuals (not averaging group performance) and using only a limited number of trials.
For example, you perform a couple of strength tests with a person on their first visit to your facility and then again a say 3 weeks later and again 3 weeks after that. You observe increasing values over time and you misinterpret that they’ve stuck to the plan, done the exercise and become stronger. However, in reality they’ve just become better and more comfortable at performing the test.
How To Identify Learning Effects
The key here is to pay attention to the data within the test. After all the practice attempts and familiarisation, you still observe a continual increase in performance – see below for a plot of scores. If this is the case then you’re likely observing learning effects
How To Minimise Learning Effects
Okay, so here’s the important bit. To minimise learning effects in your strength tests, you just need a diligent approach and to pay attention to the data in real time. Here are 3 things that you can immediately incorporate:
- 1. Ensure the person/patient is familiarised with the test. Ensure they understand what to do by clearly and concisely explaining the test and the requirements. Check their understanding.
- 2. Provide clear and concise instructions. There’s no question in the participant’s mind in what they have to do.
- 3. Habituate the person to the test. Allow a few practice attempts before you start the test so that the person is able to constantly deliver the type of muscle contractions required. To save on time, this can be incorporated into the end stages of a warm-up.
- 4. If you see continued performance improvement within a test. Take a break and repeat. How much rest – I wrote about this a couple of posts ago here
And one other thing to note: familiarisation and habituation are slightly different and both need to be attended to.
Summary
What are the take-homes of this?
- Learning effects exhibit as continued improvements within a test
- Check for this be paying close attention during each data capture
- Control for these by following the simple steps above
I hope this was useful. As always, thanks for reading and please feel free to share with others 🙂
Claire
Don’t forget, doors open to this course on 28th July, for just 2 weeks!
