Next to practice itself, feedback provided to a learner from an external source such as a coach or therapist is considered the most important factor facilitating skill acquisition. Past research has suggested that punishment and reward feedback have dissociable effects on learning and retention, respectively. However, other studies have suggested a more reliable effect of punishment feedback while failing to replicate the benefit of reward on retention. This discrepancy across experiments may be the result of seemingly innocuous methodological differences. Here, I ran a pre-registered online experiment to test the replicability of the supposed dissociable effects of punishment and reward on learning during training and retention, respectively. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either punishment feedback (n = 34) or reward feedback (n = 34) during the training period as they learned a repeating 12-element sequence in a serial reaction time task. Feedback consisted of participants either seeing a red (Punishment group) or green (Reward group) box flash on their computer screen and, unbeknownst to them, either a corresponding loss (Punishment group) or gain (Reward group) of points from their starting total. Participants were informed that a good final point score (i.e., the higher the better) could earn them extra entries into a gift card lottery. Contrary to what much of the literature has found, our results revealed no statistically significant differences between groups in either the training or retention phases of the experiment. In conclusion, the findings of this experiment failed to replicate the previously found dissociable effects of punishment and reward feedback on learning and retention, respectively. The data instead suggests that providing participants with punishment or reward feedback may affect learning and retention in a similar manner. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / The information that you get from your senses, along with the comments and criticisms given to you by others, are all forms of feedback that may or may not be available in your environment. Feedback can often be given to you in the form of a punishment or a reward in an effort to facilitate your performance of a motor skill, such as learning to juggle a soccer ball. In this thesis, I explored whether punishment and reward feedback have dissociable effects on the way people learn and retain a new motor skill. Some individuals received punishment feedback by seeing a red box flash on their screen and losing points, while others received reward feedback by seeing a green box flash on their screen and gaining points. Although the participants learned the new motor skill in the experiment, the results showed that reward and punishment feedback did not differentially impact motor learning. These results suggest that either reward or punishment feedback may be a useful feedback strategy for promoting motor learning.

Punishment and reward feedback during motor learning tasks appear to have some beneficial impact on learning and retention, respectively. Therefore, it is possible that combining punishment and reward feedback would benefit both learning and retention. Within the sports coaching domain, a combination of punishment and reward feedback schedule has been suggested to improve performance. According to the coaching literature, the most effective approach is providing reward-to-punishment feedback. However, transitioning from punishment-to-reward feedback may be more effective based on the motor learning literature. The present study examined the utility of combining punishment and reward feedback through a transition schedule approach during a serial reaction time task. To test the competing predictions about feedback order, half the participants received punishment-to-reward feedback and the other half received the reverse order. Our results revealed that training response time significantly improved with no significant difference between the order of feedback. However, both types of feedback order did not improve retention during the same-day and delayed post-tests. Yet, the non-significant equivalence test indicates that these findings remain inconclusive. Finally, within-subjects analysis of the punishment and reward conditions found that training significantly improved response time with no difference between them. In this case, the equivalence test was significant, revealing that the estimated effect was surprisingly small. Overall, the current study failed to find conclusive evidence that the order of a transition feedback schedule matters for learning and retention. However, the difference between punishment and reward conditions may be smaller than previously assumed by motor learning studies. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / An important part of learning any skill is receiving information that helps us recognize mistakes and improve our performance, known as feedback. In fact, feedback presented as a punishment or reward has been shown to improve an individual's ability to learn and retain skills, respectively. Therefore, can combining punishment and reward feedback benefit both learning and retention? One way to deliver both types of feedback is using a transition schedule. Some have recommended that transitioning from punishment to reward feedback would be most effective, while others have suggested the reverse order. The current study examined whether the order of receiving punishment and reward feedback affected learning and retention. To test this, subjects either received punishment-to-reward feedback or reward-to-punishment feedback during a key-pressing task. Our results did not find conclusive evidence that the order mattered for learning and retention. Furthermore, the difference between punishment and reward feedback overall was smaller than previously thought. These findings highlight that more studies may need to be conducted to get a better understanding of whether the order of punishment and reward feedback can benefit both learning and retention.