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Research Digest: What Does Science Have to Say About Feedback?

Using Red Font Influences the Emotional Perception of Critical Performance Feedback 

Bertrams, Alex Althaus, Lea Boss, Tina Furrer, Patricia Jegher, Ladina C. Soszynska, Paulina Tschumi, Vinzenz (2019)
The participants’ subsequent evaluation of the feedback revealed that using red in the feedback caused the feedback to be perceived as relatively less emotionally positive. 

Using a red font indirectly had an adverse effect on the cognitive feedback perception, mediated via the emotional feedback perception.

Big Take-Away: Be cautious with that red pen when giving feedback! 

I do not need feedback! Or do I? Self-efficacy, perspective taking, and feedback seeking.

Sherf, Elad N. & Morrison, Elizabeth W. (2019)

...the relationship between self-efficacy and feedback seeking depends on the extent to which one engages in perspective taking.
In the absence of perspective taking, self-efficacy tends to be more negatively related to feedback seeking.

Big Take-Away: When people believe that they are competent at something, they are less likely to seek feedback. But when they engage in perspective taking, they become more likely to seek feedback, even if they feel confident int he topic.


Effects of elaborate feedback during practice tests: Costs and benefits of retrieval prompts.

van den Broek, G. S. E., Segers, E., van Rijn, H., Takashima, A., & Verhoeven, L. (2019)

Overall, hints feedback was not preferable over show-answer feedback. The common notion that hints are beneficial may not hold when the total practice time is limited.

Big Take-Away: When practicing recall, giving hints is no better than just giving the answer.



Test feedback and learning: Student preferences and perceived influence.

Smith, A. C., Ralph, B. C. W., MacLeod, C. M., & Smilek, D. (2019)

Following a recall quiz, student were provided with:
"(a) no feedback, 
(b) correct response feedback only, or 
(c) elaborative feedback consisting of the correct responses plus representation of the source material."

Elaborative feedback was preferred over feedback containing only the correct response, and both were preferred over receiving no feedback...[participants] even reported that they found receiving no feedback harmful to their learning.

Big Take-Away: Assessments with no feedback might have detrimental effects on student engagement and elaborative feedback is generally preferred by students.



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