Effects of Successful Experience and Positive Feedback on Learning and Rehabilitation

Abstract

Recent studies in cognitive neuroscience have provided evidence for the importance of positive feedback or successful experiences on behavioral changes. This chapter explores three examples in which positive feedback or successful experiences modulate neural function or behavioral outcomes: (1) In a visual-motor sequential learning task that initially requires trial-and-error processing, errors in the learning stage do not seem to have any signifi cant effect on performance in successive identical trials (elaboration stage), in either accuracy or speed of performance. However, relative to experiencing errors, success in the initial learning stage leads to enhanced performance in the later elaboration stage. (2) Praise or social rewards not only motivate online learning but also directly enhance offl ine improvement, or consolidation, of motor skills. (3) Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been proven to enhance motor functions in both healthy individuals and stroke patients. I propose that various human functions, including learning and recovery, are enhanced by using normal and clinical applications that provide successful experience and positive feedback. Keywords Consolidation • Learning • Positive feedback • Rehabilitation IntroductionPositive and negative feedback have long been recognized as potent factors infl uencing learning and behavioral outcome. However, recent studies have also highlighted the effects of positive feedback on various aspects of brain function and behavior, which are refl ected by the recent emergence of positive psychology [ 1 , 2 ].

Enhancing Motion-In-Depth Perception of Random-Dot Stereograms

“…In Phase 2 (training), participants received some training to help them to improve their MID perception. Each participant underwent a series of 60 trials as in Phase 1, but after each response, they were told if they had estimated the direction of motion correctly (Watanabe, 2015). Phase 2 stopped if the percentage of correct answers at the end of a series had reached 80% for this series (i.e., of 60 trials) or after three series (whether the percentage of correct answers was improved or not).…”