Decreasing fuel-oil consumption through feedback and social commendation

The energy crisis of the winter of 1973-74 led to severe shortages of fuel oil for home heating and a government request for voluntary conservation by the oil consumer. This experiment tested two methods of facilitating fuel-oil conservation. Home fuel-oil consumers were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups: feedback of information on rate of oil use, feedback plus commendation for reduced consumption, or a no-treatment control. The consumption rate for the feedback plus commendation group was significantly lower than that of either the informational feedback group or the control group. The informational feedback group did not differ from the control group. The results suggest that feedback alone may not result in oil conservation, but that feedback combined with commendation can produce socially significant savings.     

Enhancing frequency recording by developmental disabilities treatment staff

We evaluated a staff training and management package for increasing accuracy of recording frequency of problem behavior in a residential care facility. A multiple baseline design across the first and second work shifts showed that 2 of 8 participants increased their accuracy following in-service training, and all 8 improved during a condition with supervisor presence and feedback. Improvements were maintained when feedback was removed and generalized to activity periods when neither supervisor presence nor feedback was provided. Other staff behavior was not adversely affected by the intervention package.     

A Review of: “Barkley,R. A., & Robin,A. L. (2008). Your Defiant Teen: 10 Steps to Resolve Conflict and Rebuild Your Relationship.”

We report a study that addressed behavior data recording by direct-care staff at a child services program. In response to a decreasing percentage of daily data recording in two community-based group homes, a supervisory intervention was implemented, consisting of a revised data recording form and providing performance feedback to the direct-care staff. The intervention increased and maintained the percentage of daily data recording each month across the two group homes and seven sets of child behavior data. The study represents one approach toward staff performance improvement within child services programs.     

Computer‐based training to teach observers to accurately score problem behavior using fast forwarding at 5x normal speed

The current study evaluated whether a computer‐based training program could improve observers' accuracy in scoring discrete instances of problem behavior at 5x normal speed using a multiple‐baseline design across subjects. During pretraining and posttraining, observers attempted to score multiple examples of problem behavior at 5.0x without feedback. During training, participants scored multiple examples of problem behavior at 5.0x with automated feedback. Researchers measured omission (missing problem behavior) and commission (scoring other behavior as problem behavior) errors and the total duration of scoring time to determine the observers' accuracy and efficiency, respectively. After training, all participants scored instances of problem behavior with less than 11% error using 5.0x. The time required to score the videos across 90‐min observations was reduced by 66%. Results extend previous evaluations of fast forwarding by demonstrating that the training program could be used to teach observers to accurately score problem behavior using a speed faster than 3.5x.     

BEHAVIORAL COMMUNITY INTERVENTION TO REDUCE THE RISK OF SKIN CANCER

Peer leader modeling, posted feedback, posted goals, and a commitment raffle were used at two swimming pools to increase behaviors associated with skin cancer prevention. During the intervention condition, pool lifeguards modeled the protective behaviors by wearing sunglasses, t-shirts, and hats, using zinc oxide and sunscreen, and staying in the shade. Children and adolescents (1 to 16 years old) increased their use of two or more protective behaviors from a baseline mean of 6.5% to 26.9% during the intervention. Adults (older than 16 years) increased their protective behaviors from a baseline mean of 22% to 37.95% during the intervention. The lifeguards increased their use of all the protective behaviors from a baseline mean of 16.7% to 63.5% during intervention. Ways to improve and expand this intervention are discussed.     

Training student teachers to reposition infants frequently

We evaluated the effects of an intervention designed to increase the variety of positions experienced by infants in a child-care setting. Six student teachers were trained, using a multicomponent intervention, to reposition infants according to a chart. The intervention was successful in increasing the mean percentage of correct position changes made by all 6 student teachers, and performance gains by 3 student teachers persisted when supervisor feedback was briefly removed.     

PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK INFORMATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION: EVIDENCE OF CONCEPTUAL CONVERGENCE

This study investigates the degree to which performance feedback information can be conceptually housed within an existing theoretical framework of organizational communication. If one's job can be conceptualized as a work information environment, then logically there should be some communality between organizational communication and performance feedback information. In this study 213 faculty members at Iowa State University completed a questionnaire addressing patterns of organizational communication within their respective academic departments and feedback on their own job performance provided them by multiple sources. In order to uncover any underlying congruence between the communication and feedback constructs, the data were subjected to canonical correlation analysis. The results revealed that the type of feedback, source of feedback, and perceived reliability of feedback sources were all found to interact in logical patterns with selected dimensions of organizational communication.     

反馈干预对学习判断的影响

将反馈干预作为外部线索引入元记忆研究,采用重复学习任务,在第一轮次学习-测验之后插入反馈干预,用两个实验分别考查任务反馈和能力反馈两种形式下的反馈效价对第二轮次即时学习判断的影响.结果表明：①在学习过程中,学习者会进行自我监测;②在任务反馈形式下,反馈信息与自我监测信息冲突,导致反馈干预对元认知监测和认知过程没有影响;③在能力反馈形式下,反馈信息与自我监测信息的冲突消失,结果消极反馈影响了元认知监测.由此得出结论：只有在不与自我监测信息冲突的情况下,反馈干预才对学习判断产生影响.此外,在有反馈干预的情况下,两个实验中都出现了显著的练习伴随低估效应.     

‘Good,you identified the suspect…but please ignore this feedback’: can warnings eliminate the effects of post‐identification feedback?

The present experiments focus on whether the post‐identification feedback effect can be reduced by providing participants with warnings. Participants viewed a crime on video and identified a suspect from a target‐absent lineup (Experiment 1) or target‐present lineup (Experiment 2). Participants then received positive feedback, negative feedback or no feedback. Half of the participants received a warning saying their feedback was randomly generated by the computer, and the other half received no warning. Robust post‐identification feedback effects were observed in both experiments in the no warning condition. These effects were largely eliminated when participants received a warning. In Experiments 3 and 4, we failed to find an ameliorative effect of a forensically realistic warning. These results indicate that warnings can reduce the effect of post‐identification feedback in principle, but the application of warnings in practice may be more difficult. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reduced-frequency concurrent and terminal feedback: a test of the guidance hypothesis

In 2 experiments, the authors manipulated the frequency of concurrent feedback to discern the effects on learning. In each experiment, participants (N = 48, Experiment 1; N = 36, Experiment 2) attempted to reproduce a criterion force-production waveform (5 s in duration) presented on the computer monitor. Consistent with the guidance hypothesis, the results of Experiment 1 indicated very strong guiding effects of concurrent feedback and strong dependence on the feedback, as indicated by participants' extremely poor performance upon feedback withdrawal in retention. As predicted by the guidance hypothesis, dependence on the feedback was reduced as a result of reducing the frequency of the concurrent feedback. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that one can enhance learning by providing concurrent and terminal feedback on 1 trial, with no feedback on the subsequent trial. In that way, the strong guiding effects of concurrent feedback could be realized and the beneficial effects of terminal feedback could also be achieved.     

Feedback enhances the positive effects and reduces the negative effects of multiple-choice testing

Multiple-choice tests are used frequently in higher education without much consideration of the impact this form of assessment has on learning. Multiple-choice testing enhances retention of the material tested (the testing effect); however, unlike other tests, multiple-choice can also be detrimental because it exposes students to misinformation in the form of lures. The selection of lures can lead students to acquire false knowledge (Roediger & Marsh, 2005). The present research investigated whether feedback could be used to boost the positive effects and reduce the negative effects of multiple-choice testing. Subjects studied passages and then received a multiple-choice test with immediate feedback, delayed feedback, or no feedback. In comparison with the no-feedback condition, both immediate and delayed feedback increased the proportion of correct responses and reduced the proportion of intrusions (i.e., lure responses from the initial multiple-choice test) on a delayed cued recall test. Educators should provide feedback when using multiple-choice tests.     

Counterintuitive effects of negative social feedback on attention

Which stimuli we pay attention to is strongly influenced by learning. Stimuli previously associated with reward outcomes, such as money and food, and stimuli previously associated with aversive outcomes, such as monetary loss and electric shock, automatically capture attention. Social reward (happy expressions) can bias attention towards associated stimuli, but the role of negative social feedback in biasing attentional selection remains unexplored. On the one hand, negative social feedback often serves to discourage particular behaviours. If attentional selection can be curbed much like any other behavioural preference, we might expect stimuli associated with negative social feedback to be more readily ignored. On the other hand, if negative social feedback influences attention in the same way that other aversive outcomes do, such feedback might ironically bias attention towards the stimuli it is intended to discourage selection of. In the present study, participants first completed a training phase in which colour targets were associated with negative social feedback. Then, in a subsequent test phase, these same colour stimuli served as task-irrelevant distractors during a visual search task. The results strongly support the latter interpretation in that stimuli previously associated with negative social feedback impaired search performance.     

Rapid visual feedback processing in single-aiming movements

A major line of behavioral support for motor-program theory derives from evidence indicating that feedback does not influence the execution and control of limited duration movements. Since feedback cannot be utilized, the motor-program is assumed to act as the controlling agent. in a classic study, Keele and Posner observed that visual feedback had no effect on the accuracy of 190-msec single-aiming movements. Therefore visual feedback processing time is greater than 190 msec, and, more importantly, limited duration movements are governed by motor programs. In the present paper, we observed that visual feedback can affect the spatial accuracy of movement with durations much less than 190 msec. We hypothesize that visual feedback can aid motor control via processes not associated with intermittent error corrections.     

Reduced-Frequency Concurrent and Terminal Feedback: A Test of the Guidance Hypothesis

In 2 experiments, the authors manipulated the frequency of concurrent feedback to discern the effects on learning. In each experiment, participants (N = 48, Experiment 1; N = 36, Experiment 2) attempted to reproduce a criterion force-production waveform (5 s in duration) presented on the computer monitor. Consistent with the guidance hypothesis, the results of Experiment 1 indicated very strong guiding effects of concurrent feedback and strong dependence on the feedback, as indicated by participants' extremely poor performance upon feedback withdrawal in retention. As predicted by the guidance hypothesis, dependence on the feedback was reduced as a result of reducing the frequency of the concurrent feedback. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that one can enhance learning by providing concurrent and terminal feedback on 1 trial, with no feedback on the subsequent trial. In that way, the strong guiding effects of concurrent feedback could be realized and the beneficial effects of terminal feedback could also be achieved.     

The learning of 90° continuous relative phase with and without Lissajous feedback: external and internally generated bimanual coordination

Results from recent experiments (e.g., Kovacs, Buchanan, & Shea, 2009a–b, 2010a,b) suggest that when salient visual information is presented using Lissajous plots bimanual coordination patterns typically thought to be very difficult to perform without extensive practice can be performed with remarkably low relative phase error and variability with 5 min or less of practice. However, when this feedback is removed, performance deteriorates. The purpose of the present experiment was to determine if reducing the frequency of feedback presentation will decrease the participant's reliance on the feedback and will facilitate the development of an internal representation capable of sustaining performance when the Lissajous feedback is withdrawn. The results demonstrated that reduced frequency Lissajous feedback results in very effective bimanual coordination performance on tests with Lissajous feedback available and when feedback is withdrawn. Taken together the present experiments add to the growing literature that supports the notion that salient perceptual information can override some aspects of the system's intrinsic dynamics typically linked to motor output control. Additionally, the present results suggest that the learning of both externally and internally driven bimanual coordination is facilitated by providing reduced frequency Lissajous feedback.     

多人交互同步记录技术在大脑神经活动测量中的应用*

多人交互同步记录是一种新技术,可以实现同时对多人的脑活动进行测量,现已被越来越多地应用到社会交互的研究中。本文从不同技术角度出发,回顾已经发表的有关多人交互同步记录的研究,从中可以了解不同的脑活动记录技术是如何被应用到各种实验范式中,以及人脑间是如何动态交互的。同时本文也对不同的多人交互同步记录技术的优缺点进行了比较。鉴于该方法的优势,其在未来的社会交互研究中具有广泛的应用前景。     

FTAP: A Linux-based program for tapping and music experiments

This paper describes FTAP, a flexible data collection system for tapping and music experiments. FTAP runs on standard PC hardware with the Linux operating system and can process input keystrokes and auditory output with reliable millisecond resolution. It uses standard MIDI devices for input and output and is particularly flexible in the area of auditory feedback manipulation. FTAP can run a wide variety of experiments, including synchronization/continuation tasks (Wing & Kristofferson, 1973), synchronization tasks combined with delayed auditory feedback (Aschersleben & Prinz, 1997), continuation tasks with isolated feedback perturbations (Wing, 1977), and complex alterations of feedback in music performance (Finney, 1997). Such experiments have often been implemented with custom hardware and software systems, but with FTAP they can be specified by a simple ASCII text parameter file. FTAP is available at no cost in source-code form.     

Feedback and intention during motor-skill learning: a connection with prospective memory

The intention to complete an action in the future can improve the learning of this action, but it is unknown whether this effect persists when feedback is manipulated during encoding. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to learn a motor skill with or without intending to reproduce this learning in the future, and feedback on their movements was administrated by self-decision, that is, participants asked for feedback whenever they wanted it. The results showed that intention increased the frequency with which feedback was requested, but did not improve motor performance. In Experiment 2, participants had to learn the task with high or few feedbacks, which they could not control. In these conditions, intention was beneficial in promoting motor learning only for a low feedback schedule. We suggest that the beneficial effect of intention on learning can be overshadowed or emphasised by the feedback processing during encoding. These findings are discussed in light of theories surrounding prospective memory.