The influence of formal, substantive, and contextual task properties on the relative effectiveness of different forms of feedback in multiple-cue probability learning tasks

Abstract

Previous research shows that when participants are given information that allows them to compare task properties with properties of their cognitive system (cognitive feedback) they reach higher levels of achievement in multiple-cue probability learning (MCPL) tasks than when they are shown the correct answer after each trial (outcome feedback). It was hypothesized that this finding was in part due to the use of neutral task content in nearly all previous research, for neutral content fails to provide information about task properties in the outcome feedback condition. A study was conducted to compare the level of achievement reached with cognitive and outcome feedback under three conditions which varied the congruence between task properties implied by task content and actual task properties. The study supported the above hypothesis. When task content provided no task information, the level of achievement with cognitive feedback was higher than that reached with outcome feedback, even with perfect task predictability. When the task information provided by task content was congruent with actual task properties, however, the level of achievement with outcome feedback was as high as that with cognitive feedback. And when the task information provided by task content was incongruent with actual task properties, the level of achievement with cognitive feedback was as low as that with outcome feedback. Two additional experiments suggest that the effectiveness of cognitive feedback depends on contextual task properties, such as the number of blocks of trials and the credibility of the feedback. The results indicate that the relative effectiveness of outcome and cognitive feedback depends on formal, substantive, and contextual task properties.