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Overcoming the guidance effect in motor skill learning: feedback all the time can be beneficial

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Abstract

Extensive research has shown that augmented feedback presented too often can create a dependency on the feedback and hinder long-term memory formation of a motor skill. This dependency has been labeled the guidance effect, and one way to overcome the guidance effect is to reduce how often augmented feedback is presented during training. In two experiments, participants were presented with visual augmented feedback during every trial in a 5-min training interval. Participants were provided visual augmented feedback in the form of a Lissajous template of a 1:2 multi-frequency pattern and a cursor representing the coordination between the limbs. Some participants were trained with the cursor superimposed (behind group) on the Lissajous template, and others were trained with the cursor presented in a separate window (side group) from the Lissajous template. In experiment 1, motion of the end-effectors was constrained to the medial–lateral direction in the horizontal plane. In experiment 2, end-effector motion was possible in both the medial–lateral and anterior–posterior directions in the horizontal plane. The location of the cursor did not influence performance during the 5-min training interval in either experiment. After a 15-min break, a retention test performed without the visual feedback provided by the cursor revealed that the behind groups’ performance was guided by the visual feedback in both experiments, whereas the side groups were able to perform without visual feedback. In experiment two, the side group’s performance without feedback was influenced when anterior–posterior motion was not constrained; however, the extent of the guidance effect was significantly less compared to the behind trained group in both experiments. The results show that the emergence of guided motor performance depends on the format of the display that provides visually based augmented feedback, and not just on how often the feedback is provided. In conclusion, visually based augmented feedback leads to the simultaneous development of a spatial and motor representation of the task. The behind format led to a dependence on the spatial representation developed during training, while the side format facilitated the development of the motor representation as a means to overcome guidance.

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Notes

  1. The elbow and shoulders were free to move in the current task context, and the motion of these components drives the motion of the hands with regard to the 1:2 pattern. Considering the biomechanical DF of elbows and shoulders would increase the number of motor degrees of theoretically. The task space, however, can be defined only in terms of the hands along the medial–lateral and anterior–posterior directions in the horizontal plane, with the medical–lateral direction being the only direction that contributes to task success. Thus, to simplify the discussion, the term motor DF is linked only to the motion of the end-effectors on the table.

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  1. Human Performance Labs, Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-4243, USA

    John J. Buchanan & Chaoyi Wang

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  1. John J. Buchanan
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  2. Chaoyi Wang
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Correspondence to John J. Buchanan.

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Buchanan, J.J., Wang, C. Overcoming the guidance effect in motor skill learning: feedback all the time can be beneficial. Exp Brain Res 219, 305–320 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-012-3092-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-012-3092-x

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