When is knowledge of performance (KP) superior to knowledge of results (KR) in promoting motor skill learning? A systematic review

ABSTRACT

Augmented feedback is a key component of motor skill learning. Feedback can provide information relating to the movement outcome (knowledge of results; KR) or information relating to a movement parameter (knowledge of performance; KP). The effect of KR on skill learning has been long studied, but it is unclear whether KP can supplement or substitute KR to enhance learning. The aim of this study is to compare the effect of KR with the effect of KP, and a combination of KR and KP, on motor skill learning. An electronic search was performed on Psychinfo, PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and SportDiscuss databases. A total of 19 studies of mixed quality were included. The results showed that a combination of KR and prescriptive KP was superior to KR; prescriptive KP alone was superior to KR; and KR was superior to descriptive KP. We speculate that this finding supports the view that augmented feedback promotes motor learning when it facilitates a learner’s search for goal-relevant movement solutions. Considering the sample included, these results can be generalized only to novices. We encourage future research to examine how skill level and additional classification of KP interact with KR and KP on the learning process.

KEYWORDS:

• Skill acquisition
• motor learning
• augmented feedback
• learning intervention
• feedback strategy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

This article did not create new data. The data analysed in this article has been retrivied from the cited sources, and the analysis of the data is readily available in the results section (Tables 3 and 4).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) as part of Germany’s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2050/1 – Project ID 390696704 – Cluster of Excellence ‘Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop’ (CeTI) of Technische Universität Dresden.