The Effect of Corrective Feedback in Basic Cognitive Tasks: A Study in Early Childhood

• Published in: Children (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 2; p. 145
• Main Authors: Moret-Tatay, Carmen, Vaquer-Cardona, Enrique, Bernabé-Valero, Gloria, Blasco-Magraner, José Salvador, Sáiz-Mauleón, Begoña, Jorques-Infante, María José, Iborra-Marmolejo, Isabel, Beneyto-Arrojo, María José
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 23-01-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Accuracy; Age groups; Brief Report; corrective feedback; Data analysis; early childhood; Feedback; Learning; Pediatrics; Preschool children; reaction time; Software; Standard deviation; time components; University students; Variance analysis; corrective feedback; reaction time; early childhood; time components
• ISSN: 2227-9067; 2227-9067
• DOI: 10.3390/children9020145

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of trial-by-trial corrective feedback in a go-no-go task for children. A sample of 40 preschool students, divided into 4- and 5-year-olds, participated in the study, as well as a group of 20 university students. All the groups performed the task in a counterbalanced design of blocks with and without corrective feedback. Reaction time and accuracy rate were measured as dependent variables. Moreover, reaction time was also analyzed through an ex-Gaussian fit. Children were slightly more accurate and slower under the presence of corrective feedback, suggesting a more conservative pattern. University students were faster, but corrective feedback did not reach the statistical level. Regarding reaction time components, a reduction of the distribution tails, depicted by the τ parameter, was found for both groups under the corrective feedback condition. This suggests that parameterization of reaction time can be considered as a strategy for a more detailed analysis to examine the effect of corrective feedback, even at early ages. In this way, corrective feedback depicted beneficial effects in the τ parameter at early ages, suggesting its use in basic cognitive tasks based on go-no-go but not for older groups.