What to do or What Not to Do?: Identifying the Content of Effective Feedback

Abstract

While previous research strongly indicates that training feedback is more effective when it includes information about the processes underlying performance, rather than only detailing the outcome of learner actions, there are still many open questions about the content of optimally effective feedback. In particular, there is some disagreement in the literature as to whether process-based feedback should focus on a diagnostic critique of the student processes, or simply present information about the processes associated with skilled or expert performance. This research investigates the appropriate content of process-based feedback in a complex, dynamic, military task. Fuzzy logic was used to abstract patterns from performance data and form the basis of process-based feedback. We found that process-based feedback led to significant performance improvements, while outcome-based feedback did not, and that diagnostic feedback did not lead to greater performance improvement than providing information about expert processes.