The Effect of Knowledge of Results on Learning and Performance IV. The Direction of the Error in Very Simple Skills

Abstract

Re-examination of the data discussed in previous papers of this series shows a greater tendency toward “overshooting” when the time interval between trials, in some of the experiments, is short than when it is longer. The subject tends to make a bigger movement or exert more pressure with short intervals. This seems to be true with or without visual knowledge of results. On the other hand, with the experiments in which the task was to press a key for a given short interval, the effect was not conclusively shown. A hypothesis is put forward to explain these results in terms of proprioceptive adaptation.