| A computer simulation was developed to examine the effects of feedback type (immediate, delayed, or none) and signal probability (p = 0.05 or 0.12) on the accuracy of identifying signals (missing components), inspection response rate, and response sensitivity {dollar}(dspprime){dollar}. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of six experimental groups: (1) immediate feedback with a signal probability of 0.05 (I/0.05), (2) delayed feedback with a signal probability of 0.05 (D/0.05), (3) no feedback with a signal probability of 0.05 (N/0.05), (4) immediate feedback with a signal probability of 0.12 (I/0.12), (5) delayed feedback with a signal probability of 0.12 (D/0.12), and (6) no feedback with a signal probability of 0.12 (N/0.12). In a self-paced computer tutorial, subjects learned to identify the presence/absence of signals in a schematic diagram of a hard disk drive on a computer screen. During experimental sessions, subjects were exposed to series of 200 machine-paced samples and were required to indicate whether or not each sample contained a signal. Low signal probability resulted in higher inspection accuracy and lower response sensitivity compared to high signal probability. Type of feedback did not affect inspection accuracy across experimental groups. However, some minimal effects of feedback type were evident, including (a) delayed feedback resulted in lower inspection accuracy during earlier experimental sessions than in later sessions (immediate and no-feedback conditions showed no such difference); and (b) high signal probability with delayed feedback resulted in slower response rates than high signal probability with immediate or no feedback. |
