Feedback (Psychology)

Employment coaching is essential for performing job duties and for developing
and enhancing skills. Coaching in the school setting typically follows the traditional
format of pre-conference, observe, and post-conference, where feedback on teaching
performance is shared but often delayed. Professional development provides teachers
with skills to enhance their teaching practice with little to no follow-up or support. The
most effective way to produce change in the school setting is to show the connection
between professional development and student performance, and iCoaching can help to
bridge the gap. Research shows that effective feedback is immediate, systematic,
positive, constructive, and detailed (Scheeler & Lee, 2002). Bug-in-ear (BIE) coaching is
a way to provide immediate feedback so correction can be made live, and errors are
reduced. iCoaching uses iPods as a BIE device with a coach serving as a remote observer
providing coaching prompts or immediate feedback to the teacher to allow the teacher to implement ideas or make corrections immediately. Increasing opportunities to respond
(“Increasing Opportunities to Respond,” 2015) is a way to increase academic
achievement and on task behavior (Sutherland, Alder, & Gunter, 2003). This study
utilized a multiple probe across participants design to investigate the effect of iCoaching
on teacher-delivered OTR. Four teacher participants and their students participated in the
study, where the teachers completed a teacher preparation session and live iCoaching
sessions to increase their OTR. Data were collected on OTR (including the type of
OTR), coaching comments, student responses, and student curricular performance. The
results indicate that iCoaching was effective in increasing teacher-delivered OTR and
increasing student responses and academic performance. Implications for future research
are discussed.

Twenty-four rats were trained to avoid shock in a shuttlebox,
receiving feedback for a correct response. During extinction,
matched pairs were tested under response contingent or
response independent feedback, with either shock or no shock. The combination of response contingent feedback and no shock
led to the greatest resistance to extinction. No other significant
differences were found. The results were used to support
the discrimination hypothesis, and concurred with other studies
with regard to: (1) the functional similarity of feedback and
CS termination in the acquisition and maintenance of avoidance,
and (2) the importance of the interaction of the response contingency
with the avoidance contingency, in determining the
effects on avoidance responding.

In view of the subject's reinforcement history during
avoidance training in the traditional vicious circle paradigm,
the author maintained that the stimulus complex changes little
during punished extinction. It was therefore reasoned that
vicious circle running during punished extinction might be
precluded by the presence of a feedback stimulus (FS) that
had been encountered during training only on avoidance trials.
To test this hypothesis, the presence of an FS and CS were
manipulated in both training and extinction to produce a 3 x 3
factorial design. An analysis of running speed revealed
that all groups ran significantly slower on initial extinction
trials than on terminal acquisition trials, an outcome inconsistent
with the literature. In addition, training condition
was found to affect rate of extinction and rate of acquisition,
although not significantly. These trends suggest that the
effects of punished extinction may be attenuated through the
manipulation of discriminative cues.

Thirty-six rats were used to study the effects of
manipulating both the density and response contingency of
feedback during the extinction (OE) of discriminated shuttle-box
avoidance. Three operant groups had the opportunity to
receive response-produced feedback on either 100, 60, or
30 per cent of the extinction trials. Three yoked groups
received the' same number and pattern of feedback stimuli
as the operant groups, but independently of their own behavior.
Significant ordering was obtained between all operant and
all yoked groups, and between operant and yoked groups at
all three feedback percentage levels. An ordering trend was
obtained for the feedback percentage dimension, which was,
however, not significant. The results, however, clearly
supported the discrimination hypothesis and upheld the
importance of response produced stimulus change in the
maintenance of avoidance behavior.

The purpose of this study was to determine if a modified self-paced postinformative feedback interval (mixed PIFI) is more efficient in concept formation and identification tasks than a pure self-paced or fixed PIFI. One hundred fourteen subjects randomly assigned to three different PIFI groups (mixed, self-paced, 6-second fixed) were presented with a two-category concept formation (CF) task followed by a four-category concept identification (CI) task. A computer program presented instructions and task stimuli to subjects via microcomputer as well as regulated PIFIs and collected data. The composition and duration of the mixed PIFIs were determined after an analysis of the results of a pilot study. On the CF task, subjects received 5-second fixed PIFIs on the first 10 trials, followed by 5-second fixed PIFIs on positive instances of incorrect responses, 2-second fixed PIFIs on negative instances of incorrect responses and self-pacing on the rest of the trials. On the CI task the first 10 trails were set to 6-second fixed PIFIs and thereafter to 3-second fixed PIFIs on error trials and self-pacing on the rest of the trials. One-way analyses of variance were used to determine differences among the means of the groups studied with results considered significant at the.05 level. On the CF task, although time to criterion on the mixed and self-paced PIFIs were not significantly different, learners in the mixed PIFI group completed the task more quickly than those in the fixed PIFI group. There were no significant differences between groups on trials to criterion. On the CI task, although mixed and fixed PIFIs were not significantly different for trials to criterion, learners in the mixed PIFI group used fewer trails to solve the problems than those in the self-paced group. There were no significant differences between groups in time to criterion. Findings indicated that on the CI task, the mixed PIFI tested might be the compromise needed to reconcile the theoretical and practical dilemma of needing longer PIFIs for absorption and shorter PIFIs for subject satisfaction. Further research examining the composition of the mixed PIFI is needed.

This study evaluated the effects of feedback and learning process on students' mathematics achievement scores. The topic of instruction was factoring polynomials. Feedback had two levels, knowledge-of-correctness with explanation of error (KCE) and knowledge-of-correctness with branching to similar problems (KCB). Learning process had two levels as measured by the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), verbal and figural. The subjects were 74 south Florida junior college students enrolled in one of four Intermediate Algebra classes. Subjects were placed into one of four groups by stratified random sampling: (1) verbal and KCE; (2) verbal and KCB; (3) figural and KCE; and, (4) figural and KCB. Two CAI packages delivered instruction and feedback. They eliminated teacher variance and differed only in the type of feedback given to a subject's incorrect response. One contained KCE while the other contained KCB. The two independent variables were feedback and learning process. The dependent variables were immediate posttest scores and one-week delayed posttest scores. Analysis of covariance between the posttest scores and the independent variables was calculated using pretest scores as the covariate. No significant difference in mathematics achievement scores was found for either the types of feedback or the types of learning process. However, a significant interaction effect between feedback and learning process was found. Subjects who were dominant verbal learners receiving KCE and subjects who were dominant figural learners receiving KCB had mathematics achievement scores significantly higher than subjects who were dominant verbal learners receiving KCB and subjects who were dominant figural learners receiving KCE.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of subordinate feedback on supervisory performance. Specifically, the study was designed to answer three questions: (1) Would supervisors improve their performance if they were provided with feedback from subordinates? (2) Would supervisors improve their performance if they were provided with self-study materials to develop supervisory skills in addition to survey feedback from subordinates? (3) Would supervisors improve their performance if they were provided with self-study materials only and not survey feedback from subordinates? In order to answer these questions a study was conducted at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida, during the 1984-85 academic year. Forty-five career service supervisors at the college were the subjects of the study. These individuals were the immediate supervisors of employees who were engaged in technical, clerical, skilled craft, or service/maintenance work. A pretest-posttest experimental control group design was used in the study. The 45 supervisors were divided into four groups. Supervisors assigned to experimental group E1 received survey feedback from subordinates and self-study materials to develop supervisory skills. Supervisors in experimental group E2 received only survey feedback. Supervisors in experimental group E3 received only the self-study materials. Supervisors in control group C received neither feedback nor the self-study materials. The Survey of Management Practices was used by employees to rate supervisory performance on both the pretest and the posttest. Posttest surveys were completed by subordinates approximately 16 weeks after treatment began. Analysis of covariance was used to adjust posttest scores for pretest differences between the groups and to analyze the significance of the results. No significant differences were found between the four groups. The major implications of the study are that subordinate feedback, or a combination of self-study materials and subordinate feedback, are not sufficient to improve supervisory performance and that most supervisors do not expend the necessary effort to improve performance without positive pressure being applied. Based upon the data from the study and previous research cited, the researcher believes that three elements are needed to change supervisory behavior: (1) feedback from subordinates, (2) training, and (3) positive pressure.