The Do's and Don'ts of Feedback

The third time’s a charm right? Hopefully this third blog post about motor control and feedback will be my best yet. As I alluded to in my previous blog on the stages of learning, this blog will be about feedback. I am going to talk about the different types of feedback, as well as how to optimize feedback for better learning.

Lets start by looking at the different types of feedback. There are two main categories of feedback:

1.    Task Intrinsic Feedback – performance related feedback that is available to the learner directly through their sensory system.  

An example of this type of feedback would someone who is catching a ball knowing where the ball is because they can see it with their own visual system.

2.    Augmented Feedback – performance related feedback that is provided by an external source; it adds to or enhances the task intrinsic feedback. This category is further subdivided:

a.    Knowledge of Results (KR) – feedback that is related to the outcome of a specific event

An example of this type of feedback would be a coach telling a long distance runner who is in 1^st place, that the 2^nd place runner is catching up to them. This information is not available to the runner because they cannot see behind them and this information is related to the outcome to the race.

b.    Knowledge of Performance (KP) – feedback that is related to the movement characteristics of a skill being performed.

An example of this type of feedback would be a trainer telling his client to “shoot their hips back” when performing a hip hinge. This information is not available to the client through task-intrinsic feedback and is related to a movement characteristic of the skill.

Now that we know the different types of feedback, let’s look at how feedback can be optimized to facilitate better learning.

This is America. More is better! Give 110 percent! Go big or go home!

So when it comes to feedback, why would it be any different? Well not always. In the following section I will give some tips on when and how to provide the most effective augmented feedback to facilitate motor learning.

1.    Don’t give feedback on 100% of the trials.

Giving feedback after every single trial can cause a learner to become dependent on the feedback for successful performance. Additionally, by providing feedback after every trial, you take away from the learner’s ability to use task-intrinsic feedback, explore the movement and use discovery learning, which is very important. Instead, use some of the following strategies to reduce the amount of feedback that you give to a learner:

a.    Performance Bandwidth feedback – come up with an acceptable range of error based on the learner and the task and then only provide feedback if the learner makes a mistake that is outside of your designated performance bandwidth.

b.    Summary/Averaged feedback – instead of providing feedback after every trial, let the learner perform a number of trials (e.g. 10) without any feedback and then after all of the trials are completed, provide a summary of the performance.

c.    Tapering feedback – give frequent feedback in the beginning of the learning process but gradually give less and less feedback as learning continues until the learner is receiving very little or no feedback.

d.    Self-Selected feedback – for advanced learners, let the learner decide when they want to receive feedback. When the learner is able to ask for feedback when they want it, they are more actively engaged in cognitive problem solving and are therefore better able to learn the desired coordination pattern of the movement.

2.    Don’t give erroneous feedback.

In other words, don’t give feedback that the learner can already get from his/her senses. Giving redundant feedback can make the learner second-guess his/her own feedback system. Redundant feedback also causes learners to rely on augmented feedback instead of trusting their own task-intrinsic feedback.  

3.    Give feedback about errors to improve learning.

For beginners, feedback about errors and also how to correct those errors can be beneficial in the learning process. When giving feedback to a client who is capable of correcting their own errors, giving feedback about errors (and not corrections) is usually sufficient.

4.    Give feedback about correct performances to improve motivation.

While it is obvious that positive feedback would improve motivation, it is also worth noting that negative feedback can also motivate a learner (depending on the learner). For instance, positive feedback would be better to motivate a young child who is new to exercise, however, negative feedback (e.g. “that was terrible, is that the best you’ve got?”) can be appropriate to motivate high level athletes and extremely hardworking clients.

* Be careful to critically assess each client before providing this type of feedback. *

5.    Give short, concise feedback about only the most important aspects of the movement.

This one is fairly self explanatory. Feedback, especially concurrent feedback, needs to be short and to the point. Feedback that is too long, complex or drawn out can be very difficult for a learner to process during the performance of a skill. Therefore, feedback should be short and focused on only the most important aspects of the skill.

6.    Use a variety of feedback sources

Feedback can be given in numerous ways (e.g. visual, verbal, video recordings, biofeedback, etc.). Every learner is different and some people respond better to certain types of feedback than others. Which type of feedback is best depends on the learner, the task, and the environment.

7.    Don’t use concurrent feedback for beginners.

Concurrent feedback (given during the performance) can take a beginner’s attention away from the critical task-intrinsic feedback of a skill. For beginners, it is usually better to give terminal feedback (after their performance is over). Beginners have enough to think about and don’t have the attention capacity available to take in excessive feedback during their performance.

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to provide feedback, some which work better than others. I want to provide a disclaimer: the above information on ways to optimize feedback is generally speaking. There will always be exceptions to every rule, so be sure to take into account variables such as the task, the learner, and the environment when deciding how to provide the most effective feedback.

I hope that you took away something new from this blog that you can use in the future to optimize motor learning whether you are the teacher or the learner. I know this was on the longer side and I thank you for sticking with me to the end.

Until next time,

- Joe Rinaldi