No Feedback Research Articles

Acute cognitively challenging exercise as “cognitive booster” for children: Positive feedback matters!

Background and aimAcute exercise can enhance children's cognition. Heterogeneous effect sizes necessitate investigating exercise task characteristics, contextual factors, and related affective states. The study aimed to test whether different feedback forms during acute cognitively challenging exercise affect children's executive control, alerting, and orienting performances, also considering the potential mediational role of affective states. MethodsIn a within–subjects posttest only design, 100 children (Mage = 11.0, SDage = 0.8, 48% female) participated weekly in one of three exergames with different feedback: no feedback (NO-FB), standard acoustic environment (ST-FB), positive feedback (PO-FB). Acute bouts were designed to keep physical intensity (65% HRmax) and duration (15-min) constant and to have a high cognitive challenge. Valence, arousal, perceived physical exertion, cognitive engagement, and flow were assessed before, during and after exergaming. Each bout was followed by an Attention Network Test. ResultsANOVAs revealed a significant main effect of feedback on executive control (η2p = 0.09) with faster reaction times after PO-FB compared to the other conditions (η2ps > 0.06) and on valence at post–test (η2p = 0.11) with highest values in PO-FB (η2ps > 0.08). In PO-FB, valence was associated with executive control (r = −0.23) but did not mediate feedback effects on executive control (95% CI [–5.25, 4.68]). Alerting and orienting performances were unaffected by feedback (η2ps < 0.08). ConclusionResults suggest that positive feedback during acute cognitively challenging exergaming enhances children's executive control and positive affect, highlighting that exercise task characteristics and contextual factors are essential for cognitive benefits.

Informational feedback accelerates learning in multi-alternative perceptual judgements of orientation

Experience or training can substantially improve perceptual performance through perceptual learning, and the extent and rate of these improvements may be affected by feedback. In this paper, we first developed a neural network model based on the integrated reweighting theory (Dosher et al., 2013) to account for perceptual learning and performance in n-alternative identification tasks and the dependence of learning on different forms of feedback. We then report an experiment comparing the effectiveness of response feedback (RF) versus accuracy feedback (AF) or no feedback (NF) (full versus partial versus no supervision) in learning a challenging eight-alternative visual orientation identification (8AFC) task. Although learning sometimes occurred in the absence of feedback (NF), RF had a clear advantage above AF or NF in this task. Using hybrid supervision learning rules, a new n-alternative identification integrated reweighting theory (I-IRT) explained both the differences in learning curves given different feedback and the dynamic changes in identification confusion data. This study shows that training with more informational feedback (RF) is more effective, though not necessary, in these challenging n-alternative tasks, a result that has implications for developing training paradigms in realistic tasks.

The Effect of Comprehensive Written Corrective Feedback on EFL Learners’ Written Syntactic Complexity

Research background: The effectiveness of Corrective feedback has been a controversial issue and thus a central part of second language writing instruction worldwide.Gap in knowledge and Purpose of the study: It has been argued that the provision of written corrective feedback can affect the complexity of the written text negatively, and the issue is not sufficiently investigated. Therefore, this studyinvestigated the effects of two types of comprehensive written corrective feedback strategies: direct corrective feedback (DCF), and metalinguistic explanation (ME) on L2 learners’ written syntactic complexity.Methods: This study was quasi-experimental and used a pretest-intervention-posttest-delayed-posttest design. Participants were 90 Turkish EFL upper-intermediate learners, whose L2 proficiency and L2 writing skills were controlled by administering the Oxford Placement Test and the IELTS Writing Task 2 test. They were assigned to three groups: DCF, ME, and NF (i.e., no feedback on grammatical errors).The treatment/control period lasted for five weeks. Every week, each participant wrote an essay of argument-led type in class and then received the specified feedback. No work was done on writing for the two-week interval between the posttest and delayed posttest. Lu’s (2010) web-based L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyser was utilised to calculate the syntactic complexity measures. The MANOVA test was utilized to find the results.Findings and Value added: It was revealed the ME group was not significantly different from the NF group. The DCF group significantly outperformed the ME group in the clauses per sentence (C/S) of the texts both in posttests and delayed-posttests. The DCF group also significantly outperformed the NF group in the clauses per T-unit (C/T), complex T-units per T-unit (CP/T), and C/S in posttests, but the positive effect of the DCF on CP/T was not durable after the two-week interval.

Utilizing hierarchical redundancy for accurate throwing movement.

Understanding how athletes reduce motor variability in redundant tasks contributes to improving sports performance and elucidating human motor control mechanisms. This study aimed to clarify how experienced basketball players use two hierarchical redundancies, ball-level and body-level, for accurate free-throw shooting as no study has simultaneously examined how these hierarchical redundancies are used. Experienced basketball players (intermediate-level and top-level) participated in a free-throw shooting experiment using a motion capture system under two conditions: with feedback (FB) and no-feedback (NF) conditions. To quantify the coordination, the solution manifold and tolerance, noise, and covariation analysis were used for the ball-level redundancy, while uncontrolled manifold analysis and the covariation by randomization method were used for the body-level redundancy. The ball-level analysis revealed that the covariation and noise components were related to the performance, and that the noise component showed a larger contribution to performance than the covariation component, indicating that the reproducibility of the release parameters has a larger room for improvement than coordination. The coordination of release parameters was not significantly different between the FB and NF conditions, indicating that the effect of performance feedback on coordination is unclear. The body-level analysis revealed that interjoint coordination reduced the variability of the longitudinal positions of the hand and fingertip, showing that interjoint coordination improves the reproducibility of the ball-release position, especially in the direction that strongly affects the motor performance. In conclusion, interjoint coordination improved the reproducibility of ball-release parameters, which enhanced motor performance in basketball free-throw shooting.

Encouragement of Turn-Taking by Real-Time Feedback Impacts Creative Idea Generation in Dyads

Building creativity in a remote group is challenging, and various methods to improve it have been investigated. However, the effect of a real-time feedback system on computer-mediated group creativity outcome remains undetermined. In this study, we studied the creativity performance of 20 two-person groups (dyads) while they engaged in a group alternative uses task via video-mediated communication and received real-time feedback cues based on turn-taking. The study included three conditions: turn-taking encouragement feedback (TTF), random time feedback (RF), and no feedback (NF). To probe the underlying mechanism, we assessed creativity outcomes, participants’ mood, and the temporal characteristics of the feedback effect type (i.e., slow gradual or instantaneous). The performance results revealed that TTF can enhance creativity outcome in the three dimensions of fluency, originality, and index of convergence. Comparing the self-reported moods indicated that the TTF cues heightened negative valence with high emotional arousal. While the results did not show any slow gradual changes in idea generation and idea quality differences between conditions, the results showed that the feedback cue impact was instantaneous. The results also indicated a significant instantaneous effect of immediate turn-taking on idea generation. Our findings suggest that the TTF condition enhanced cognitive persistence rather than cognitive flexibility during the remote group creativity session. The results of this study can be useful not only in remote human-to-human communications, but also in designing social robots and agents.

The Effects Of Visual Feedback On Physiological And Perceptual Responses During A Virtual Cycling Class

BACKGROUND: Virtual cycling classes offer riders a unique exercise experience through cycling feedback of cadence, resistance and total work output on multi-touch counsels; however, despite popularity, little is known regarding physiological and perceptual responses when cycling with performance feedback in comparison to a typical Spin bike which lacks feedback. PURPOSE: This study compared intensity selection and perceptual responses between receiving cycling feedback vs. no feedback when completing a virtual Spin class. METHODS: Individuals (N = 14) of varying aerobic fitness (VO2 max 41.0 ± 8.0 ml/kg/min) completed a VO2 max trial and two cycling sessions. Each session, completed on a Peloton bike, consisted of a preselected 30-minute Spin class; one session was completed with cycling feedback (VIS) of cadence, resistance, and total work output, and the other with no feedback (NOF). Following each bout, session RPE (SRPE) was estimated and a Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) was completed. Paired t-tests were used to compare cadence, resistance, and total work of the warm-up, workout, and cool-down of each session. Perceptual measures of SRPE and PACES were also compared between sessions using paired t-test. RESULTS: Warm-up cadence was significantly higher (p < 0.01) for VIS (93.3 ± 6.7) vs. NOF (85.3 ± 12.3); whereas, cool-down resistance was significantly lower (p < 0.01) for VIS (30.2 ± 3.4) vs. NOF (36.0 ± 6.0) with no significant differences for workout portion. Perceptual measures were not significantly different, except for accomplishment approaching significance (p = 0.09) with a greater response for VIS vs. NOF. Lastly, the majority (93%) of participants preferred VIS over NOF. CONCLUSION: Results suggest cycling feedback could assist exercisers in achieving instructor suggested intensity during warm-up and cool-down. Additionally, with greater preference and sense of accomplishment with cycling feedback there is the potential to increase exercise adherence.

A Wearable Vibrotactile Biofeedback System Targeting Gait Symmetry of Lower-limb Prosthetic Users.

Lower limb prosthetic users exhibit gait deviations, which include asymmetrical stance time (ST), leading to secondary musculoskeletal problems. Biofeedback (BFB) systems have the potential to provide gait training to correct gait deviations. In this work, we describe a wearable BFB system that delivers vibrotactile feedback via two tactors (located at the anterior and posterior side of the residual limb of prosthetic users) to correct asymmetrical ST (%) using two strategies - single threshold feedback (SF) and bandwidth threshold feedback (BF). Validation of the system involved a sample of five lower limb amputees to examine the effectiveness of each strategy when compared to no feedback (NF) gait trials. Significant differences were found between no feedback and feedback trials. Although no significant differences were found between SF and BF, there are small but evident trends indicating that BF encourages ST (%) that is closest to the target with less error.

The Effect of Comprehensive Written Corrective Feedback on EFL Learners’ Written Syntactic Accuracy

This quasi-experimental study, using a pretest-treatment-posttest-delayed posttest design, investigated the effects of two comprehensive corrective feedback strategies: direct corrective feedback (DCF), and metalinguistic explanation (ME) on L2 learners’ written syntactic accuracy. The participants were 90 Turkish EFL learners. After ensuring their homogeneity in terms of L2 proficiency using Oxford Quick Placement Test, they were assigned to three groups: DCF, ME, and No Feedback (NF). The treatment/control period lasted for five weeks, during which the experimental groups wrote an argumentative essay in class, received the unfocused feedback, and revised their corrected text. The participants in the NF group were provided with feedback only on content, orthography, and organization, but not on grammatical errors. Results of the posttests and delayed-posttests (after a two-week interval) revealed that both experimental groups significantly outperformed the NF group; however, no statistically significant difference was found between the DCF and ME groups. Pedagogical implications are discussed in the paper.

Using feedback to improve monitoring judgment accuracy in kindergarten children

Recognizing errors is challenging for children. In the educational context, inaccurate self-monitoring and a lack of error recognition can hinder learning and successful preparation for elementary school. This study aimed to investigate whether kindergartners’ monitoring accuracy can benefit from feedback, by investigating effects of performance feedback (PF) and calibration feedback (CF), combining feedback on performance with feedback on monitoring. Kindergartners (ages five and six, n = 105) were assigned to either a PF, CF, or no-feedback (NF) control group. They completed analogical reasoning tasks, and then monitored performance by indicating (a) whether responses for each task item were correct or incorrect, and (b) by making global self-reward judgments for performance on the entire task. Moreover, working memory (WM) was assessed to investigate individual differences in the ability to process feedback. Children were overconfident; they overlooked most of their errors and gave themselves inappropriately high rewards for performance. Although both PF and CF improved error monitoring, CF had more beneficial effects than PF on monitoring accuracy. In contrast, concerning self-rewarding, PF was most beneficial. The finding that only children with high WM optimally benefitted from CF implies that WM moderates feedback processing. CF may not be equally effective for all kindergartners. Feedback that only addresses performance may be easier to process, and therefore more suitable.

Visual kinematic feedback enhances the execution of a novel knee flexion gait pattern in children and adolescents

BackgroundAltered knee motion is one of the most common gait deviations in pediatric populations with gait disorders. The potential for pediatric gait retraining using visual feedback based on knee kinematic patterns is under-explored. Research questionThis study investigated whether pediatric participants could successfully modify knee flexion patterns in response to a visual kinematic feedback system (VKFS). MethodsKnee flexion angles from twelve typically developing children and adolescents (6 M, 6 F; 11.9 ± 2.7 years) were calculated using wearable inertial measurement units. Participants were tested while walking on a treadmill using pattern based visual feedback (FB). Four novel target patterns which amplified or attenuated swing phase peak knee flexion were tested. No feedback (NFB) tests assessed the participant’s ability to independently reproduce the patterns. Mean absolute cycle error (MACE) and magnitude of peak knee flexion error (PK) were calculated during the last 10 strides of FB and NFB trials. Pre-exposure reference values (R) were also calculated. Results and significancePK-FB was significantly smaller (p < 0.05) than PK-R for all targets. Average values for PK-NFB were higher than for PK-FB, although PK-NFB remained significantly lower than PK-R for two targets. Contrary to one of the study’s hypotheses, MACE-FB and MACE-NFB were larger than MACE-R.The study provided evidence that pediatric participants were able to modify peak knee flexion during gait in the sense targeted by the VKFS. Analysis suggested that MACE increases were explained by increases in gait cycle deviation outside of the changed region.

Electrotactile Feedback in a Virtual Hand Rehabilitation Platform: Evaluation and Implementation

Tactile feedback plays an important role in hand manipulation, especially in the grasping process which is one of the major functions of the hand. However, few commercially available prosthetic hands or hand motor function rehabilitation systems are equipped with tactile feedback. The absence of suitable tactile feedback modules leads to an inferior rehabilitation performance with a large burden on user training and compromised usability. Thus, it is challenging and essential to integrate a proper tactile feedback module with the existing hand rehabilitation systems to achieve a better control performance and accelerate the rehabilitation process. This paper focuses on the implementation and evaluation of the electrotactile feedback (EF) enhanced rehabilitation system. A virtual hand rehabilitation platform is proposed comprising an surface electromyography (sEMG) acquisition module, an electrotactile stimulation module, a virtual environment with sEMG-driven humanlike hand and numerical feedbacks of grasping force and fingertip deformation, where a closed-loop control is formed. Three different feedback conditions including visual feedback (VF), EF, and no feedback (NF) are compared based on the proposed platform. Experiments were conducted on 10 able-bodied subjects, and multiple quantitative metrics for the rehabilitation performance evaluation including training burden estimation and success rate (SR) of tasks were adopted. Results indicate that the integration of EF is helpful to both reduce the rehabilitation duration and improve the virtual grasping SR in comparison with the NF condition while possessing a better practicality over VF. Note to Practitioners —This paper is motivated by the problem of hand grasp control for rehabilitation purposes, but it also applies to other hand motor function rehabilitation process. Existing hand motor function rehabilitation approaches generally lack a proper feedback and rely on the heavy burden during user training and the users experience. This paper suggests incorporating EF to improve the efficiency and efficacy of the rehabilitation process. The electrical stimulation is driven by the myoelectric-sensing-based force estimation and encoded in a manual scheme to fit each individual involved. In our work, a virtual hand rehabilitation platform is implemented to verify the feasibility of EF in reducing the burden of user training and improving the rehabilitation performance, which allows the expanding of the current system into a broader spectrum of motor function rehabilitation applications. Experiments on able-bodied subjects suggest that the EF in the proposed virtual hand rehabilitation platform is feasible, but it has not been tested on the limb-impaired subjects and confined to a manual encoding of electrical stimulation. In the future research, the design of a general EF enhanced hand rehabilitation platform with a standardized stimulation parameter optimization will be addressed and further validated on the subjects with limb impairments and amputation.

Feedback From Activity Trackers Improves Daily Step Count After Knee and Hip Arthroplasty: A Randomized Controlled Trial

BackgroundCommercial wrist-worn activity monitors have the potential to accurately assess activity levels and are being increasingly adopted in the general population. The aim of this study was to determine if feedback from a commercial activity monitor improves activity levels over the first 6 weeks after total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA). MethodsOne hundred sixty-three consecutive subjects undergoing primary TKA or THA were randomized into 2 groups. Subjects received an activity tracker with the step display obscured 2 weeks before surgery and completed patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). On day 1 after surgery, participants were randomized to either the “feedback (FB) group” or the “no feedback (NFB) group.” The FB group was able to view their daily step count and was given a daily step goal. Participants in the NFB group wore the device with the display obscured for 2 weeks after surgery, after which time they were also able to see their daily step count but did not receive a formal step goal. The mean daily steps at 1, 2, 6 weeks, and 6 months were monitored. At 6 months after surgery, subjects repeated PROMs and daily step count collection. ResultsOf the 163 subjects, 95 underwent THA and 68 underwent TKA. FB subjects had a significantly higher (P < .03) mean daily step count by 43% in week 1, 33% in week 2, 21% in week 6, and 17% at 6 months, compared with NFB. The FB subjects were 1.7 times more likely to achieve a mean 7000 steps per day than the NFB subjects at 6 weeks after surgery (P = .02). There was no significant difference between the groups in PROMs at 6 months. Ninety percent of FB and 83% of NFB participants reported that they were satisfied with the results of the surgery (P = .08). At 6 months after surgery, 70% of subjects had a greater mean daily step count compared with their preoperative level. ConclusionSubjects who received feedback from a commercial activity tracker with a daily step goal had significantly higher activity levels after hip and knee arthroplasty over 6 weeks and 6 months, compared with subjects who did not receive feedback in a randomized controlled trial. Commercial activity trackers may be a useful and effective adjunct after arthroplasty.

The Influence of Feedback on Task-Switching Performance: A Drift Diffusion Modeling Account.

Task-switching is an important cognitive skill that facilitates our ability to choose appropriate behavior in a varied and changing environment. Task-switching training studies have sought to improve this ability by practicing switching between multiple tasks. However, an efficacious training paradigm has been difficult to develop in part due to findings that small differences in task parameters influence switching behavior in a non-trivial manner. Here, for the first time we employ the Drift Diffusion Model (DDM) to understand the influence of feedback on task-switching and investigate how drift diffusion parameters change over the course of task switch training. We trained 316 participants on a simple task where they alternated sorting stimuli by color or by shape. Feedback differed in six different ways between subjects groups, ranging from No Feedback (NFB) to a variety of manipulations addressing trial-wise vs. Block Feedback (BFB), rewards vs. punishments, payment bonuses and different payouts depending upon the trial type (switch/non-switch). While overall performance was found to be affected by feedback, no effect of feedback was found on task-switching learning. Drift Diffusion Modeling revealed that the reductions in reaction time (RT) switch cost over the course of training were driven by a continually decreasing decision boundary. Furthermore, feedback effects on RT switch cost were also driven by differences in decision boundary, but not in drift rate. These results reveal that participants systematically modified their task-switching performance without yielding an overall gain in performance.

Advanced Forecasting Approach to Improve Uncertainty of Solar Irradiance Associated with Aerosol Direct Effects

Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models such as the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model are essential for forecasting one-day-ahead solar irradiance. In order to evaluate the performance of the WRF in forecasting solar irradiance over the Korean Peninsula, we compared WRF prediction data from 2008 to 2010 corresponding to weather observation data (OBS) from the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA). The WRF model showed poor performance at polluted regions such as Seoul and Suwon where the relative Root Mean Square Error (rRMSE) is over 30%. Predictions by the WRF model alone had a large amount of potential error because of the lack of actual aerosol radiative feedbacks. For the purpose of reducing this error induced by atmospheric particles, i.e., aerosols, the WRF model was coupled with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The coupled system makes it possible to estimate the radiative feedbacks of aerosols on the solar irradiance. As a result, the solar irradiance estimated by the coupled system showed a strong dependence on both the aerosol spatial distributions and the associated optical properties. In the NF (No Feedback) case, which refers to the WRF-only stimulated system without aerosol feedbacks, the GHI was overestimated by 50-200 W m -2 compared with OBS derived values at each site. In the YF (Yes Feedback) case, in contrast, which refers to the WRF-CMAQ two-way coupled system, the rRMSE was significantly improved by 3.1-3.7% at Suwon and Seoul where the Particulate Matter (PM) concentrations, specifically, those related to the PM 10 size fraction, were over 100 μg m -3 . Thus, the coupled system showed promise for acquiring more accurate solar irradiance forecasts.

Adverse Effects of Outcome Monitoring Feedback in Patients With Personality Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Day Treatment and Inpatient Settings.

This study aimed to evaluate the differential effect of outcome monitoring feedback to therapists and to patients on outcomes in cluster B, cluster C, and personality disorder not otherwise specified (PD-NOS) patients. Day treatment patients (n = 112) and inpatients (n = 94) were randomly assigned to a feedback to therapist (FbT), feedback to therapist and patient (FbTP), or no feedback (NFb) condition. Feedback was based on weekly administrations of the Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ-45). In cluster B and PD-NOS patients FbTP resulted in increased OQ-45 scores during the first 6 months of therapy for not on track (NOT) patients. In cluster C patients, no adverse effects of feedback were found. These results suggest that for certain personality disorder patient groups, providing feedback during treatment may not always be beneficial, although more research is needed to further assess these effects.

Real-time visual feedback during training improves laypersons' CPR quality: a randomized controlled manikin study.

The chances of surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest depend on early and high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Our aim is to verify whether the use of feedback devices during laypersons' CPR training improves chest compression quality. Laypersons totalling 450 participating in Basic Life Support and Automated External Defibrillation (BLS/AED) courses were randomly divided into three groups: group No Feedback (NF) attended a course without any feedback, group Short Feedback (SF) a course with 1-minute training with real-time visual feedback, and group Long Feedback (LF) a course with 10-minute training with real-time visual feedback. At the end of each course, we recorded 1 minute of compression-only CPR. The primary end point was the difference in the percentage of compressions performed with correct depth. There was a significant improvement in the percentage of compressions with correct depth in the groups receiving feedback compared to the other (NF v. LF, p=0.022; NF v. SF, p=0.005). This improvement was also present in the percentage of compressions with a complete chest recoil (71.7% in NF, 86.6% in SF, and 88.8% in LF; p<0.001), compressions with the correct hand position (93.2% in NF, 98.2% in SF, and 99.3% in LF; p<0.001), and in the Total CPR Score (79.4% in NF, 90.2% in SF, and 92.5% in LF; p<0.001). There were no significant differences for all of the parameters between group SF and group LF. Real-time visual feedback improves laypersons' CPR quality, and we suggest its use in every BLS/AED course for laypersons because it can help achieve the goals emphasized by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation recommendations.

An interactive videogame designed to improve respiratory navigator efficiency in children undergoing cardiovascular magnetic resonance.

BackgroundAdvanced cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) acquisitions often require long scan durations that necessitate respiratory navigator gating. The tradeoff of navigator gating is reduced scan efficiency, particularly when the patient’s breathing patterns are inconsistent, as is commonly seen in children. We hypothesized that engaging pediatric participants with a navigator-controlled videogame to help control breathing patterns would improve navigator efficiency and maintain image quality.MethodsWe developed custom software that processed the Siemens respiratory navigator image in real-time during CMR and represented diaphragm position using a cartoon avatar, which was projected to the participant in the scanner as visual feedback. The game incentivized children to breathe such that the avatar was positioned within the navigator acceptance window (±3 mm) throughout image acquisition.Using a 3T Siemens Tim Trio, 50 children (Age: 14 ± 3 years, 48 % female) with no significant past medical history underwent a respiratory navigator-gated 2D spiral cine displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) CMR acquisition first with no feedback (NF) and then with the feedback game (FG). Thirty of the 50 children were randomized to undergo extensive off-scanner training with the FG using a MRI simulator, or no off-scanner training. Navigator efficiency, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and global left-ventricular strains were determined for each participant and compared.ResultsUsing the FG improved average navigator efficiency from 33 ± 15 to 58 ± 13 % (p < 0.001) and improved SNR by 5 % (p = 0.01) compared to acquisitions with NF. There was no difference in navigator efficiency (p = 0.90) or SNR (p = 0.77) between untrained and trained participants for FG acquisitions. Circumferential and radial strains derived from FG acquisitions were slightly reduced compared to NF acquisitions (−16 ± 2 % vs −17 ± 2 %, p < 0.001; 40 ± 10 % vs 44 ± 11 %, p = 0.005, respectively). There were no differences in longitudinal strain (p = 0.38).ConclusionsUse of a respiratory navigator feedback game during navigator-gated CMR improved navigator efficiency in children from 33 to 58 %. This improved efficiency was associated with a 5 % increase in SNR for spiral cine DENSE. Extensive off-scanner training was not required to achieve the improvement in navigator efficiency.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12968-016-0272-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The effect of visual feedback and training in auditory-perceptual judgment of voice quality

The aim of the present investigation was to evaluate the effect of visual feedback on rating voice quality severity level and the reliability of voice quality judgment by inexperienced listeners. For this purpose two training programs were created, each lasting 2 hours. In total 37 undergraduate speech–language therapy students participated in the study and were divided into a visual plus auditory-perceptual feedback group (V + AF), an auditory-perceptual feedback group (AF), and a control group with no feedback (NF). All listeners completed two rating sessions judging overall severity labeled as grade (G), roughness (R), and breathiness (B). The judged voice samples contained the concatenation of continuous speech and sustained phonation. No significant rater reliability changes were found in the pre- and posttest between the three groups in every GRB-parameter (all p > 0.05). There was a training effect seen in the significant improvement of rater reliability for roughness within the NF and AF groups (all p < 0.05), and for breathiness within the V + AF group (p < 0.01). The rating of the severity level of roughness changed significantly after the training in the AF and V + AF groups (p < 0.01), and the breathiness severity level changed significantly after the training in the V + AF group (p < 0.01). The training of V + AF and AF may only minimally influence the reliability in the judgment of voice quality but showed significant influence on rating the severity level of GRB parameters. Therefore, the use of both visual and auditory anchors while rating as well as longer training sessions may be required to draw a firm conclusion.

Effects of multiple-try feedback and question type during mathematics problem solving on performance in similar problems

In a study of mathematics problem solving, the effect of providing multiple-try feedback on later success in solving similar problems was examined. Participants solved mathematics problems that were presented as either multiple-choice or open-ended questions, and were provided with one of four types of feedback: no feedback (NF), immediate knowledge of the correct response (KCR), multiple-try feedback with knowledge of the correct response (MTC), or multiple-try feedback with hints after an initial incorrect response (MTH). Results showed that gains in performance were larger in the open-ended than multiple-choice condition. Furthermore, gains under NF and KCR were similar, gains were larger under MTC than KCR, and gains were larger under MTH than MTC. The implications of these results for the design of assessments for learning are discussed.

How and when feedback works in psychotherapy: Is it the signal?

Objective: Monitoring of ongoing psychotherapy is of crucial importance in improving the quality of mental health care, and feedback (FB) about patients’ progress has been established as a viable means. The essential feature of FB models is that patient progress is measured continuously through therapy. Aim: This study investigated the effect of receiving a warning signal when a patient is not achieving expected improvement (not-on-track), monitored with the Norwegian version of the patient FB system OQ®-Analyst. Method: Patients from six psychiatric clinics in Southern Norway (N = 259) were randomized to FB or no feedback (NFB). Results: For the total sample, the FB effects appeared early (session three). Receiving a warning signal did not change the slope of patients’ progress after the signal was given (FB versus NFB). FB seemed to be more effective with more severely distressed patients, although insignificant. Therapists indicated that the graphs imaging patient progress, and the accompanying discussion with the patient, were the most important aspects of FB. Conclusions: The use of OQ®-Analyst should be recommended in psychotherapeutic settings in Norway. Given the inconsistent results regarding the effect of warning signals, definitive conclusions about their effect may depend upon how and for whom it is used.