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Feedback is often necessary to provide guidance for future decisions, and factors relating to feedback, including the way feedback information is framed, how frequently it is provided, and the relevance of that feedback in relation to one's decision, have been designated as influential for decision making tendencies. Unfortunately, research on what produces the most effective feedback is mixed, and the relationship between these factors and resulting evaluative and behavioral outcomes in less clear.
Four studies explored the relationship between feedback frame and frequency by addressing whether overall task feedback framed positively and receiving more frequent trial outcome feedback led to more positive performance evaluations and improvements in subsequent task performance (Studies 1A and 1B), how these evaluative and behavioral outcomes varied across different trial feedback frequency intervals (Study 2A), and whether more relevant trial feedback influenced the pattern of these results (Study 2B).
Across the four studies, it was noted that the frequency of trial feedback was more influential for task performance outcomes, while the overall task feedback frame was more influential for performance evaluation outcomes. In addition, more relevant outcome feedback was seen to influence the relationship of feedback variables more for performance evaluations than task performance. Taken together, these studies provide some clarity as to how different types and presentations of feedback produce different evaluative and behavioral outcomes and show initial direction as to when framing task feedback and providing trial feedback more frequently can lead to better, more normatively correct decision making. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as reasons why effects were not consistent across studies, are also discussed.