Effects of Inaccurate Feedback on Simultaneous Amplitude and Frequency Discrimination Tasks

Abstract

Humans frequently engage in tasks with the intention of performing well. Many previous studies have explored feedback as a tool to improve this task performance, concluding that feedback improves task performance, but only when coupled with a task performance goal. However, there is no clear consensus on how feedback without goalsetting impacts task performance. This paper aims to investigate feedback’s impact on task performance from a new angle by determining how incorrect feedback affects task performance. Through this investigation, we explored the participant thought process that plays into how the participant uses feedback. This has several implications, for example, in regard to malingering, in which people purposefully provide incorrect feedback for personal gain. To conduct this study, we instructed participants to complete simultaneous tactile discrimination tasks on which they received correct or incorrect feedback. Our results showed a significant difference in task performance between correct and incorrect feedback, and this difference increased for a harder task. Additionally, our results demonstrated that several participants receiving incorrect feedback had longer response times, indicating that they realized they were receiving incorrect feedback. Overall, this study sheds light on how feedback can be used to manipulate task performance.