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Positive und negative Rückmeldung bei Alternativdiskriminationen

Rückmeldungsproportion und Lernstrategie

Positive and negative feedback in discrimination between alternatives

Feedback proportion and learning strategy

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Summary

This study is concerned with the influence of the verbal feedback modes of “right” and “wrong” on the acquisition of alternative discriminations in blank-trial experiments, with special reference to the interaction between the feedback combinations (“right/non-feedback” as against “wrong/non-feedback”) and feedback proportion is investigated. Feedback proportion is defined as the ratio of the S-R connections of a learning list succeeded by verbal feedback to the S-R connections succeeded by non-feedback. Feedback proportion was systematically varied between the ratios of 1∶19 and 19∶1.

Results showed that at a low feedback proportion learning score is increased with the combination “right/non-feedback” while in contrast at a high feedback proportion learning score is increased with the combination “wrong/non-feedback”. These results are in accordance with theoretical expectations on learning strategies of Ss. An alternative interpretation was not confirmed by the results of an additional experiment.

In general, our investigations showed that (a) the relative effectiveness of feedback combinations is strongly dependent on the particular experimental conditions; (b) an “automatic” effect of verbal feedback cannot be assumed; (c) a cognitive interpretation of verbal feedback effects in terms of learning strategies seems very promising.

Zusammenfassung

Die Untersuchungen befassen sich mit dem Einfluß der verbalen Rückmeldungen „richtig“ und „falsch“ auf das Erlernen von Alternativdiskriminationen in Blank-trial-Experimenten. Dabei wird insbesondere die Wechselwirkung der Rückmeldungskombinationen („richtig/fehlende Rückmeldung“ vs. „falsch/fehlende Rückmeldung“) mit der Rückmeldungsproportion untersucht. Die Rückmeldungsproportion ist definiert als das Verhältnis der Anzahl der S-R-Verbindungen einer Lernliste, auf die eine verbale Rückmeldung erfolgt, und der Anzahl der S-R-Verbindungen, bei denen die verbale Rückmeldung fehlt. Die Rückmeldungsproportion wird zwischen 1∶19 und 19∶1 systematisch variiert. Unsere Experimente ergeben u. a., daß bei kleiner Rückmeldungsproportion die Kombination „richtig/fehlende Rückmeldung“ und bei großer Rückmeldungsproportion die Kombination „falsch/fehlende Rückmeldung“ die Lernleistung erhöhen. Dieser Befund wurde nach theoretischen Annahmen über die Lernstrategie der Vpn erwartet. Eine alternative theoretische Interpretation der Befunde wird nach einem Zusatzexperiment verworfen. Insgesamt bestätigen die Untersuchungen, daß (a) die relative Wirksamkeit von Rückmeldungskombinationen stark von den jeweiligen experimentellen Randbedingungen abhängt, daß (b) von einer „automatischen“ Wirksamkeit verbaler Rückmeldung keine Rede sein kann und daß (c) theoretische Annahmen über die kognitive Verarbeitung verbaler Rückmeldungen und über entsprechende Lernstrategien für die Interpretation der untersuchten Lernvorgänge erfolgversprechend sind.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Psychologie der Universität Marburg, Bundesrepublik Deutschland

    Theo Herrmann & Kurt H. Stapf

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  1. Theo Herrmann
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  2. Kurt H. Stapf
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Herrmann, T., Stapf, K.H. Positive und negative Rückmeldung bei Alternativdiskriminationen. Psychol. Forsch. 36, 117–143 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00424966

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