The Effect of Feedback and Operational Experience on Children’s Rule Learning

This study aimed to examine the relative effect of feedback and operational experience on children’s rule learning in a balance scale task, in which 88 children under the age of 7 years were asked to judge the state of equilibrium under four conditions. In the Control condition, children were required to observe the scale and predict which side would tilt down or keep balance, without feedback on the correctness of their answer. In the Operation (Op) condition, children were required to place the weights on the scale just like the experimenter did before they made predictions. In the Feedback (Fe) condition, feedback was provided for each prediction, but children were not allowed to operate the scale. In the Op-Fe condition, children could operate the scale and they were provided feedback for each prediction. The results showed that, (1) children in Control condition merely adopted the lowest level of rule, the Weight Rule; (2) when they were either given feedback or the opportunity to operate the scale, they used a higher level rule, such as the Distance Rule, more frequently; and feedback was more effective than the operational experience was in promoting rule learning; (3) when they were allowed to operate the scale, and were simultaneously provided feedback, rule learning increased markedly, suggesting that feedback-based operation is the most efficient method for facilitating children’s rule learning.