Too much feedback can be a bad thing

Kaj_Sotala

Didn't have the time to read the article itself, but based on the abstract, this certainly sounds relevant for LW:

Recent advances in information technology make it possible for decision makers to track information in real-time and obtain frequent feedback on their decisions. From a normative sense, an increase in the frequency of feedback and the ability to make changes should lead to enhanced performance as decision makers are able to respond more quickly to changes in the environment and see the consequences of their actions. At the same time, there is reason to believe that more frequent feedback can sometimes lead to declines in performance. Across four inventory management experiments, we find that in environments characterized by random noise more frequent feedback on previous decisions leads to declines in performance. Receiving more frequent feedback leads to excessive focus on and more systematic processing of more recent data as well as a failure to adequately compare information across multiple time periods.

Hat tip to the BPS Resarch Digest.

ETA: Some other relevant studies from the same site, don't remember which ones have been covered here already:

Threat of terrorism boosts people's self-esteem

The "too much choice" problem isn't as straightforward as you'd think

Forget everything you thought you knew about Phineas Gage, Kitty Genovese, Little Albert, and other classic psychological tales

Didn't have the time to read the article itself, but based on the abstract, this certainly sounds relevant for LW:

Recent advances in information technology make it possible for decision makers to track information in real-time and obtain frequent feedback on their decisions. From a normative sense, an increase in the frequency of feedback and the ability to make changes should lead to enhanced performance as decision makers are able to respond more quickly to changes in the environment and see the consequences of their actions. At the same time, there is reason to believe that more frequent feedback can sometimes lead to declines in performance. Across four inventory management experiments, we find that in environments characterized by random noise more frequent feedback on previous decisions leads to declines in performance. Receiving more frequent feedback leads to excessive focus on and more systematic processing of more recent data as well as a failure to adequately compare information across multiple time periods.

Hat tip to the BPS Resarch Digest.

ETA: Some other relevant studies from the same site, don't remember which ones have been covered here already:

Threat of terrorism boosts people's self-esteem

The "too much choice" problem isn't as straightforward as you'd think

Forget everything you thought you knew about Phineas Gage, Kitty Genovese, Little Albert, and other classic psychological tales

I'm voting this down for starting out with "Didn't have the time to read the article itself, but". If you can't take the time to read the article, then forward it to someone who might be interested so they can decide whether there's anything new in it. I don't think we want LW to be a place for exchanging pointers to articles with interesting abstracts.

I agree. Don't make a post consisting soley of a link to something you haven't read.

Even if you've read them all, I don't think the "bag of links" approach fosters discussion. It would be better on Open Thread.

1Kaj_Sotala17y

Fair enough, but the content of the abstract itself already had content that was new to me. Actually, the abstract alone was useful for me, as it hadn't occurred to me that feedback might actually be harmful in such an environment. In retrospect it's obvious, but I hadn't happened to think about it. I often scan through abstracts of scientific articles, only absorbing the information contained in them. Yes it would be better to read the whole articles, but there are too many interesting articles to read them all, and if I ever actually need to check up on the details, I can return to the article in question.

5badger17y

I disagree. I think there is currently too much pressure to post original or thoroughly commented material. I don't expect something like this to be voted highly or promoted, but I think an abstract and the broad recommendation of a blog like BPS Research is worthwhile.

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Too much feedback can be a bad thing

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Too much feedback can be a bad thing

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