Affective-motivational effects of performance feedback in computer-based assessment: Does error message complexity matter?

• Published in: Contemporary educational psychology Vol. 73; p. 102146
• Main Authors: Kuklick, Livia, Lindner, Marlit Annalena
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.04.2023
• Subjects: Automated performance feedback; Computer-based assessment; Emotion and motivation; Error message complexity; Feedback type; Low-stakes assessment; Emotion and motivation; Automated performance feedback; Error message complexity; Low-stakes assessment; Computer-based assessment; Feedback type
• ISSN: 0361-476X; 1090-2384
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2022.102146

•We investigated the affective-motivational effects of different feedback approaches.•We varied the presence of feedback + feedback complexity after incorrect responses.•Feedback modulated test-taker emotions as a function of prior response correctness.•After incorrect responses, EF feedback improved emotions compared to KR cues.•Tasks were rated more useful after EF messages than after KCR, KR, or no feedback. The impact of computer-based performance feedback on students’ affective-motivational state may be very different, depending on the positive or negative direction of the feedback message and its specific content. This experiment investigated whether more elaborated error messages improve students’ affective-motivational response to negative (i.e., corrective) feedback. We systematically varied the presence and complexity of corrective feedback messages (1 × 4 between-subjects design) and analyzed the effects of the provided feedback on students’ emotions, task-related perceived usefulness, and expectancy-value beliefs. University students (N = 439) worked on a low-stakes test with 12 constructed-response geometry tasks. They received either no feedback or different complexities of immediate corrective feedback after incorrect responses (i.e., Knowledge of Results [KR], Knowledge of Correct Response [KCR], or Elaborated Feedback [EF]), paired with immediate confirmatory KCR feedback after correct responses (i.e., confirming their response). Our data showed that students’ task-level performance moderated the emotional impact of feedback (i.e., beneficial effects after correct responses; detrimental effects after incorrect responses). Students’ performance further moderated several feedback effects on students’ expectancy-value beliefs. Regarding error message complexity, we found that students reported higher levels of positive emotions after receiving EF or KCR compared to KR, while only EF decreased students' level of negative emotions compared to KR and increased students' task-related perceived usefulness compared to all other groups. Overall, our results suggest that performance feedback is likely to improve students’ affective-motivational state when the feedback confirms a correct response. Moreover, when reporting an error, EF (or KCR messages) were more beneficial to affective-motivational outcomes than simple KR notifications.