Practicing past criterion

Continue practicing beyond first mastery to deepen automaticity and stress-proof the skill.

Why it works

Reaching criterion accuracy is not the same as automaticity. Controlled processing can produce accurate performance, but it will fail under stress, fatigue, or dual load. Practicing past criterion — over-learning — continues to shift processing onto faster, less capacity-costly pathways, producing a margin of robustness that first-criterion performance does not have. The additional trials are not wasted repetition; they are insurance against conditions that will tax the skill.

How to do it

1. Define criterion performance (e.g., 90% accuracy at target speed).
2. After first reaching criterion, continue for an additional block equal to half the practice that got you there.
3. Do not reduce effort during over-learning — maintain the same standard.
4. Then test under dual-task or stressful conditions to confirm the robustness was gained.

Evidence

Over-learning research (1970s–90s) consistently found that continued practice past criterion produced better retention and performance under degraded conditions compared to stopping at first-criterion performance. (observational)

Over-learning benefits are real but have diminishing returns — there appears to be a ceiling effect, and the optimal dose varies by skill and retention interval. The 50%-additional-practice heuristic is a rough guideline.

Sources

• Driskell, Willis & Copper (1992), "Effect of overlearning on retention," Journal of Applied Psychology

Common mistake

Stopping practice the moment a criterion is met, which produces fragile accuracy that fails under the conditions — pressure, fatigue, split attention — where the skill is most needed.