Comparison of Effects of Implicit versus Explicit Learning of a Novel Skill in Young Gymnastic Athletes

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of explicit learning with implicit learning using a dual-task paradigm on learning a novel skill and whether the performance was maintained over an extended period. Methods: Forty-four young children from a local gymnastics club (n = 44, boys n = 10, girls n = 34, age: 10 ± 2.9 years) completed four 30 min front-flip practice sessions over four weeks between pre- and post-test, followed by two retention tests three and six months after the post-test, in which no front-flip practice occurred. Results: Comparable improvements were found beyond baseline performance for both learning conditions over the six-month hiatus. While both groups increased performance at the post-test, neither explicit nor implicit learning groups were able to maintain the achieved performance level into six months of retention. In particular, the explicit group showed a more marked decrease than the implicit group after three months, which was probably caused by the decay of their reliance on the retrieval of declarative knowledge from working memory. Conclusions: The current findings highlight the importance of conducting retention tests over an extended period to monitor performance development after the acquisition of a novel task by different learning methods, as they can differ over time.