Are instructions and feedback by a therapist effective in the motor learning?

Abstract

We outline the learning effect of instruction and feedback used in the clinical setting by therapists. To make learning effective, instructions direct attention to external focus, not internal focus. Extrinsic feedback which has the same features of external focus similarly has high learning effectiveness, but the intervention by verbal instructions contains risk of hindering potential learning by the learners themselves. As a new concept, we introduce a learning method containing self-determining elements.