The Type and Timing of Feedback within an Intelligent Console-Operations Tutor

Feedback has remained a useful construct through a shift from a behavioristic explanation of learning to a more cognitive understanding. Research in the use of feedback in education suggests that corrective feedback, or feedback that provides the correct answer, is more effective than feedback that simply indicates an error. However, contrary to an information-processing theory of learning, these studies generally find no efficacy for feedback of a more elaborative nature such as the use of additional explanatory information. The study described in this paper investigated the type and timing of feedback within an intelligent console-operations tutor. Results indicate that when immediate feedback is employed during the acquisition of console-operation skill, elaborative feedback yields greater accuracy of the skill over the use of corrective feedback.