Pursuit rotor learning of mildly retarded children under supplementary feedback conditions

A rotary pursuit task employing a supplementary feedback paradigm was used to study the effects of augmenting, task-inherent information (feedback) in enhancing motor acquisition of mildly retarded children. 119 subjects were trained on the task under control and six differential applications of supplementary visual, tactile or auditory feedback. Task acquisition was facilitated by supplementary feedback in specific treatments. Also, task acquisition was favored under conditions where the locus of the supplementary feedback was juxtaposed with the "correct" response behavior. Those feedback treatments which were juxtaposed with incorrect or "error" behavior did not serve to facilitate acquisition of the pursuit task with mildly retarded subjects. A tenable explanation for the consistency of the difference between treatments could be an increase in habit state, created by the locus of the feedback which served to reinforce the elicited response.