156 Designing training and instructional programs for older adults
with practice on a particular recurrent skill. Part-task practice typically
involves repetition, where learners repeatedly perform the recurrent skill.
Examples include the synchronized motor activities required for perform-
ing a specialized type of welding operation or the series of actions needed
to move and align information from one part of a database to another
in a software application. In such cases, intensive overtraining may be
required to make the skill fully automated.
The appropriate instructional design strategy is to encourage repeti-
tion of the procedural elements of the task through short periods that are
spaced rather than long concentrated periods.