Feedback effects on learning a novel bimanual coordination pattern: support for the guidance hypothesis

The authors tested specificity and the guidance hypothesis by examining the effects of continuous or discrete concurrent feedback during acquisition, retention, and transfer of a 90 degrees phase offset bimanual coordination pattern. The authors tested both groups immediately following acquisition, 1 week later under retention conditions (i.e., identical feedback as acquisition) and under transfer conditions with a change in feedback (i.e., discrete to continuous or vice versa) and with no feedback. Acquisition results revealed superior performance by the continuous feedback group. However, during immediate transfer conditions, the continuous group showed decreased pattern accuracy and stability, whereas the discrete group improved its performance. These results support the guidance hypothesis, as the participants with a high amount of feedback in acquisition became reliant on the feedback and could not adapt their learning to a new situation. These results also show partial support for the specificity of practice hypothesis as the continuous group was only able to mimic their acquisition performance under identical conditions as practice. Practice specificity effects were not found for the discrete group, as performance was not negatively affected with a change or removal of afferent information.