PDFE #12: Feedback

There are a couple of types of extrinsic feedback: knowledge of results (KR) and knowledge of performance (KP). KR feedback is when a teacher, coach, or mentor gives verbal feedback to a learner about their successes or failures. KP feedback provides information about how the learner did on performance elements.  In this lab, I was partnered with Lindsay Cope.  I was the partner who received feedback after every trial.  I was blindfolded and tried to estimate the distance from one line to another for 10 trials while Lindsay would tell me by how many millimeters I had missed. After the 10 trials, I took a one minute break, did another 10 trials, another break and then another 10 trials. Then I had a five minute break and did 5 trials, but this time I did not receive any feedback about the distance I had missed by.  Lindsay had the same experimental set-up except that she only received feedback when she asked for it.  She requested feedback on 24 of the 30 trials.  She performed overall better on her retention test so KR feedback worked better if given only when requested.  These results did match the results expected according to the book.  When given feedback every time, I might have learned to depend on the feedback for my next trial so when it was taken away, I could not perform as well. However, Lindsay learned to get a better intuitive grasp for how far the line was away so she could perform more consistently when the feedback was taken away.  I thought one factor that could have influenced the results were outside distractions, if the participant practiced with their eyes open in between trials, and natural spatial abilities.  i also noticed that one person could have had an overall really good average even if their actual scores were not good. For example, if a person had five scores of -15mm, +15mm, -10mm, +10mm, and 1mm, they would have an average of less than 1mm off even though their actual scores were not very good.  Perhaps a better way to calculate the average would have to been to take the absolute values of the scores and then use those to calculate the average distance the person missed by.