Feedback precision and postfeedback interval duration

Abstract

Precision of feedback gain was manipulated in a simple positioning task. An optimum was found; an increase in precision past that optimum produced deleterious effects upon rate of acquisition. In a second study, increasing postfeedback interval removed that optimum. The feedback precision effects were then replicated in a timing task. The combined results of the 3 studies were interpreted as supportive of an information-processing approach to the study of postfeedback interval events for simple motor skills. The findings additionally supported specific predictions by Bilodeau and deductions from Adams' 1971 theory of motor learning.