Effects of varying the frequency of intrinsic and extrinsic feedback on motor skill learning

The guidance hypothesis (Salmoni et at, 1984) proposes that readily available extrinsic knowledge of results (KR) during motor skill acquisition is often detrimental to retention performance. This study examines whether evidence for such a guidance role might also be manifested when a novel motor skill is learned using intrinsic visual feedback naturally occurring in the task. Sixty participants were assigned to one of six acquisition groups, which were differentiated by the type of feedback (intrinsic visual KR or verbal KR) that was available during acquisition, and the frequency (10%, 50%, 100%) at which that information was provided. Participants were required to practice a beanbag toss for accuracy, followed by 10 minute, one day and one week retention tests. Acquisition performance improved with increasing verbal KR frequency but not with increased visual KR frequency. The retention results provide support for a guidance hypothesis for the role of intrinsic visual KR. Retention performance suffered with increasing frequency of visual KR with the 100% visual KR group demonstrating the worst performance. Similarly, the worst retention performance within the verbal KR condition was found in the 100% KR group. It appears then that the processing of intrinsic visual feedback conforms to similar principles to that proposed by the guidance hypothesis for extrinsic verbal KR.