Timing is Everything: Investigating Users' Feedback Timing and Content Preferences to Enhance Computer-Based Training

Abstract

Feedback is a central instructional component of computerized training systems. Research has shown that the timing and content of feedback impacts learning but less is currently known about how user preferences for the way feedback is received during training impacts its overall effectiveness. Across three experiments, this work examined whether users demonstrate a preference for the timing of feedback they receive (Experiment 1), whether honoring that preference improves their learning outcomes (Experiment 2), and whether honoring learner preferences for the content within their feedback (i.e., whether it is outcome based or explanatory) likewise impacts learning outcomes (Experiment 3). Across experiments, learners consistently preferred immediate over delayed feedback and explanatory over outcome feedback. However, aligning feedback with these preferences did not reliably improve learning outcomes and, in some cases, non-preferred conditions produced equal or better learning performance. Preference alignment more consistently influenced subjective experience, with differences in perceived mental workload, frustration, and performance despite similar objective outcomes. Overall, the results suggest that stable learner preferences do not reliably predict which feedback conditions best support learning. Instead, learning depends more on feedback design than preference matching.