Effects of Feedback Delivery Requirements on Accuracy of Observations
Making staff deliver feedback immediately after observing can degrade the accuracy of their data — collect first, feedback later.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Matey et al. (2019) asked college students to watch short clips and record what they saw.
In one phase they only took notes. In the other phase they also had to give spoken feedback right after each clip.
The team flipped the phases back and forth to see if the extra job changed the accuracy of the notes.
What they found
When participants had to give immediate feedback, their observation sheets had more errors.
Simply watching and writing kept the data clean.
How this fits with other research
Marroquin et al. (2014) seems to say the opposite. They showed that giving parents optional feedback after watching videos helped those parents nail a compliance-training skill.
The key difference is who got the feedback. In Michael’s study the observer received feedback. In Matey’s study the observer had to give feedback. Receiving help helps; giving help while you still need to watch hurts.
Griffith et al. (2012) used the same ABAB lab set-up with young adults and found no difference between video and live trainer instruction. Their neutral result lines up with Matey’s warning: small add-ons can tip the balance from good data to shaky data.
Why it matters
If you ask staff to coach each other right after they watch, you may lose the very data you need to coach with. Collect the observation first, then schedule the feedback talk. This tiny pause keeps your numbers trustworthy and still lets you develop your team.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Feedback is often used in Organizational Behavior Management to improve employee performance. Accurate feedback results in greater improvements in performance and accurate observations enable accurate feedback. However, employees may find providing feedback to peers aversive. The present study contrived a method to evaluate whether instructing individuals to deliver feedback following observations impacted the accuracy of those observations. Five college-aged participants were exposed to a counterbalanced ABAB design. In the observation-only condition (Condition A) participants conducted observations of confederate posture, scoring whether the confederate’s feet and back were “safe” or “at risk.” In the required-feedback condition (Condition B) participants observed and collected data identically to phase A, but were additionally instructed to deliver feedback regarding confederate postures following each session. The results show that all five participants demonstrated higher accuracy of observations in the observation-only condition. Factors potentially influencing lower accuracy when feedback was required are discussed.
Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 2019 · doi:10.1080/01608061.2019.1666773