Purpose:
Motor learning is the response to a new experience or practice of a skill that results in the production of a new motor skill. The contextual interference (CI) effect is a learning effect which describes the benefits of interference during practice as improved skill retention and skill transfer. Though it is an established phenomenon, the efficacy of CI has not yet been proven in complex motor tasks. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the CI effect on motor skill acquisition, retention, and transfer in sport rifle shooting.

Methods:
32 subjects were equally divided into two practice groups: high contextual interference (HCI) and low contextual interference (LCI). Four blocks of thirty shots were performed 10 meters from the target. Three positions (standing, sitting, and lying down) were used to manipulate the CI effect. The HCI group changed positions before each shot, while the LCI group shot 10 times in the same position before changing to the next one. All conditions were randomized between groups and subjects. One week after the 120 acquisition shots, retention and transfer (15 and 25 meters from the target) tests were carried out.

Results:
Accuracy between groups during the acquisition phase, retention test results, and transfer test results were similar between groups. Therefore, the CI effect was not observed in any of the phases of motor learning in sport rifle shooting.

Conclusions:
It is possible these results are associated with the amount of practice, level of CI used, and complex characteristic of the task.