ABSTRACT
Complex cognitive skills cannot be learned without feedback. There are reasons to believe that positive and negative feedback function differently. For skills that are represented hierarchically, feedback can provide information locally, concerning individual actions, or more globally, referring to higher level goals. A 2-by-2 factorial experiment showed an interaction between type of feedback (positive or negative) and scope of feedback (global or local). Contrary to the wide spread belief in the effectiveness of positive feedback, local negative was most effective. Global negative feedback was least effective. Positive feedback fell between these two conditions and was less affected by scope. The results are discussed in terms of the information content of the feedback.
