The effects of feedback and consequences on transitional cursive letter formation

Twelve first-grade students were employed to analyze the effects of (1) Verbal and Visual Feedback, (2) Verbal and Visual Feedback plus immediate rewriting of trained letters with one or more incorrect letter strokes, and (3) Potential Reinforcement on cursive letter strokes. Students practised both a set of trained and a set of untrained letters during each session. Feedback and reinforcement was administered only for trained letter strokes. The percentage of correct trained letter strokes increased during all conditions. Performance on the untrained but practiced and trained letter strokes followed the same general trend in response pattern. No consistent pattern of generalization was demonstrated with untrained and unpracticed letter strokes.