The Effect of Erroneous Knowledge of Results on Skill Acquisition when Augmented Information is Redundant

Even though it can be shown that verbal knowledge of results (KR) is redundant with sensory feedback for learning certain motor skills, such findings do not eliminate the possibility that when KR is available it influences underlying learning processes. In order to examine the function of KR more closely, two experiments were designed in which the subjects received conflicting information about their own sensory feedback and the KR presented by the experimenter. In Experiment 1, two erroneous-KR groups, a correct-KR group, and a no-KR group performed 150 practice trials on a simple anticipation timing task and then performed three no-KR retention tests of 30 trials each following intervals of 10 minutes, 1 week, and 1 month. The results supported previous findings that providing correct KR is redundant in anticipation tasks. However, learning was influenced by KR as subjects performed according to the erroneous KR information, thereby ignoring their sensory feedback even after a 1-month interval. In Experiment 2, subjects practised a more complex striking response for the anticipation task for 75 trials and then performed no-KR retention trials either immediately, or 1 day or 1 week later. One of the groups received erroneous KR after 50 practice trials with correct KR. The results confirmed and extended those from Experiment 1, as erroneous KR, even after initial practice with correct KR, influenced retention performance. These results indicate that although KR provides information that is not needed to learn anticipation timing skills, this augmented verbal information is a dominant source of information that influences underlying cognitive processes involved in learning motor skills.     

Spatial compatibility of signal-response position in pointing

Two experiments are reported in which, by means of a pointing task, we studied the stimulus-position effect, i.e. the inverted U-shape form of the reaction-time function in relation to stimulus position in tasks in which stimuli and/or responses are arranged in a horizontal array. The response consisted of aiming the index finger from a central starting point at a target area on a screen. Reaction time was the main dependent variable. The spatial relation between the position of the imperative signal and the position of the response was manipulated by varying the spatial S-R compatibility and physical distance that separated the positions of stimulus and response. The stimulus-position effect was shown to depend on the compatibility of the S-R relation (Exp. 1). In Exp. 2 it was found that the modulation of the stimulus-position effect by spatial compatibility disappeared completely when the distance between the positions of stimulus and response was reduced. None of the experiments revealed that the stimulus position effect depended on signal discriminability, which renders an interpretation of this effect in terms of perceptual processes unlikely. We argue that the attentional model of spatial coding provides the most reasonable explanation of the obtained reaction-time patterns.     

Relearning movements: modification of an incorrectly timed reversal movement.

The main purpose of this study was to examine if an inaccurately acquired motor response can be relearned through the provision of a limited number of correct KR trials. 26 subjects were assigned to one of three experimental groups: a no-KR group, an erroneous KR group, and a relearning group who were given correct KR after 125 trials of erroneous KR. Analysis showed a significant temporal correction of the reversal movement when the erroneous KR was replaced by valid verbal information during acquisition. This adaptation, however, was attenuated during retention, indicating that the limited number of correct KR trials did not wash out the effect of the invalid information provided during the first phase of acquisition.     

The Role of Concurrent Feedback in Learning to Walk Through Sliding Doors

Concurrent feedback is defined as information about performance given to participants during the execution of an action. This article investigates whether concurrent feedback is beneficial or detrimental to the learning of an ecologically relevant task. Eighteen participants were asked to walk through a virtual corridor and they practiced over 1110 trials to adjust their walking speed so as to pass through sliding doors that opened and closed at a frequency of 1 Hz. Concurrent feedback informed them about the possible need to accelerate or decelerate. Performance of participants who received concurrent feedback on 66% of the practice trials (on average) did not differ significantly from performance of participants who did not receive concurrent feedback. Furthermore, participants of both of these groups significantly outperformed participants who received concurrent feedback on all practice trials. These results are discussed in relation to the perceptual-motor mechanisms that underlie the control of the action. Also discussed are implications for future research, including the use of self-controlled feedback and the use of multisensory training programs.     

The Relationships Between Ethical Climates, Ethical Ideologies and Organisational Commitment Within Indonesian Higher Education Institutions

This research aimed to assess the potential of alternatives to extrinsic pecuniary rewards for cultivating employees’ commitment in denominational higher education institutions in Indonesia. Two ethics-related variables, namely ethical climates and ethical ideologies, were chosen as possible predictors. A model delineating the nexus between ethical climates types, ethical ideologies, and various forms of organisational commitment was developed and tested. A two-step structural equation modelling procedure was used as the primary means in testing the hypothesised relationships. The research involved staff of nine Catholic higher education institutions in Indonesia and comprised 642 respondents. Results of the research revealed a negative relationship between egoistic climates and affective commitment. Benevolence climate was shown to have potential for generating not only affective, but also continuance commitment. However, our results suggested those climates that cultivate continuance commitment needed further examination. Principle-based climates were found to positively influence staff’s affective commitment through their positive impacts on staff’s idealistic ethical ideology. As expected, the principle-cosmopolitan was shown to have a negative influence on relativism. A number of managerial and scholarly implications are discussed.     

Resolving a conflict between sensory feedback and knowledge of results, while learning a motor skill

In a recent study, Buekers, Magill, and Hall (1992) showed that even when verbal knowledge of results (KR) was redundant with sensory feedback, erroneous KR influenced the learning of motor skills. To determine why this occurred, we conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, subjects performed 50 practice trials on a complex anticipation task and then performed three non-KR retention tests of 25 trials each. The results indicated that when correct KR and erroneous KR were provided alternately, subjects ignored the erroneous KR and performed according to the correct KR. Experiment 2 compared different ratios of no KR to erroneous KR. The results showed that, for low ratios (1:1 and 4:1), learning experience was similar to a condition in which erroneous KR was presented on all trials. For a higher ratio (9:1), however, learning performance was similar to performance when KR was correct on all trials or was not presented. These results are interpreted as support for the hypothesis that when two conflicting sources of information are available, the subject's degree of uncertainty about the valid source of information influences his selection of the information to guide performance.     

The one-target advantage: a test of the movement integration hypothesis.

Two experiments were conducted to compare the temporal structure of single aiming movements to two-component movements involving either a reversal in direction or an extension. For reversal movements, there was no cost associated with the movement time for the first segment of the movement. However, regardless of movement direction, initiation instructions, handedness or effector, two-component extension movements were always associated with a longer movement time for the first movement segment. This disadvantage for extension movements, but not reversal movements, is consistent with the notion that there is interference between the execution of the first movement and implementation of the second movement. By contrast, because the muscular force used to break the first movement is also used to propel the second movement, reversal movements are organised as an integrated unit.     

Is the learning of goal-directed displacement effector-independent?

The present experiment was designed to investigate whether the learning of goal-directed locomotion is effector independent. To answer this question a bilateral transfer of learning paradigm was used. We wanted to find out whether learning can be transferred from a trained effector system to an untrained one. Sixteen participants were asked to proceed through virtual hallways, while walking on a treadmill or handling of a joystick, in order to cross a pair of oscillating doors. Participants received 1050 training trials on the specific effector system before being transferred to the untrained one. Results indicated a clear transfer from handling to walking and only a moderate transfer from walking to handling. This asymmetrical transfer provides partial support in favor of the effector independent hypothesis. Both the theoretical implications of this work and the possible mediating effect of calibration are discussed.     

The utilization of visual information in the control of reciprocal aiming movements

Two experiments examined on-line processing during the execution of reciprocal aiming movements. In Experiment 1, participants used a stylus to make movements between two targets of equal size. Three vision conditions were used: full vision, vision during flight and vision only on contact with the target. Participants had significantly longer movement times and spent more time in contact with the targets when vision was available only on contact with the target. Additionally, the proportion of time to peak velocity revealed that movement trajectories became more symmetric when vision was not available during flight. The data indicate that participants used vision not only to 'home-in' on the current target, but also to prepare subsequent movements. In Experiment 2, liquid crystal goggles provided a single visual sample every 40 ms of a 500 ms duty cycle. Of interest was how participants timed their reciprocal aiming to take advantage of these brief visual samples. Although across participants no particular portion of the movement trajectory was favored, individual performers did time their movements consistently with the onset and offset of vision. Once again, performance and kinematic data indicated that movement segments were not independent of each other.     

The study of locomotor pointing in virtual reality: The validation of a test set-up

The goal of this experiment was to validate an experimental set-up for studying locomotor pointing. The specific and also original element of this set-up was the interactive nature of virtual reality and movement production. This interaction was achieved through the coupling of a treadmill and a Silicon Graphics system. This latter system generated on a screen (3 × 2.3 m) an environmental array that moved according to the action produced by subjects on a treadmill. The task was to place either foot on a spatial target that appeared on the floor in front of the subject’s displacement trajectory. We analyzed the step length patterns of subjects approaching these targets, along with the current target-subject relationship. The results are in agreement with aperception-action coupling type of control mechanism that operates continuously as the subject approaches the desired target. Apparently, these findings mirror observations of real-life locomotion, indicating that the present set-up provides a valid and useful tool for examining human locomotion.