Effect of two types of visual feedback upon the acquisition and retention of an asymmetric bimanual coordination task: a case of female students of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz

The prime objective of the current study was to investigate the effect of two different types of visual feedback upon the acquisition and retention of an asymmetric bimanual task. 36 right handed female students of Shahid Chamran University with an age range of 19-25 years volunteered for the task, who were randomly divided in 3 different groups of 1) natural vision (who only looked at the hands), 2) simultaneous feedback from the screen (who looked at the screen), and 3) control, and practiced in 5 blocks of 5 tryout trials. The subjects fulfilled the asymmetric bimanual task by means of two measurement instruments each consisting of a light pen and a sensitive screen, connected to two notebook computers by means of USB ports. The mean errors of each subject in the fulfillment of the asymmetric bimanual task were then subjected to further analysis. The results were suggestive that both types of visual feedbacks could positively influence the performance of the subjects. Furthermore, the results of the LSD tracking test demonstrated that the effect of the presented feedback for the depiction of star and line was significant for both types of visual feedbacks within the acquisition phase (p?0.001). In addition, the effect of both types of visual feedback was found to be significant for the depiction of star within the retention phase (P?0.05), while the exerted effect was not significant for the depiction of line within the aforementioned phase (p?0.05). The findings of the current study suggest that when visual feedback is simultaneously added to the asymmetric bimanual task, it is positively effective within the acquisition phase. Therefore, informing the learners about the effects of feedback upon the performance of the motor skills can generally lead to the reduction of functional error and the increment of the acquisition and learning level.