Accuracy in control of continuous motor tasks has been reported to be a function of age as well as sensory feedback, with auditory sensory feedback being more effective for adults than visual sensory feedback. In contrast, there are conflicting reports regarding the effectiveness of sensory feedback for children. The present purpose was to examine whether auditory sensory feedback was beneficial for children learning a continuous cycling task. A total of 15 children (M age = 5.2 yr., SD = 1.1) and 15 adults (M age = 27.7 yr., SD = 4.7) were randomly assigned to an auditory feedback, visual feedback, or auditory + visual feedback condition. No significant interaction of group × condition was found, but computation of effect size indicated that the auditory feedback condition produced a moderate to large effect size on error reduction for children compared with other feedback conditions. It was concluded that feedback presented in auditory form was more beneficial than visual form or visual + auditory form for children in learning a continuous motor task.
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