Sonification as Concurrent Augmented Feedback for Motor Skill Learning and the Importance of Mapping Design

In recent years, sonification of movement has emerged as a viable method for the provision of feedback in motor learning. Despite some experimental validation of its utility, controlled trials to test the usefulness of sonification in a motor learning context are still rare. As such, there are no accepted conventions for dealing with its implementation. This article addresses the question of how continuous movement information should be best presented as sound to be fed back to the learner. It is proposed that to establish effective approaches to using sonification in this context, consideration must be given to the processes that underlie motor learning, in particular the nature of the perceptual information available to the learner for performing the task at hand. Although sonification has much potential in movement performance enhancement, this potential is largely unrealised as of yet, in part due to the lack of a clear framework for sonification mapping: the relationship between movement and sound. By grounding mapping decisions in a firmer understanding of how perceptual information guides learning, and an embodied cognition stance in general, it is hoped that greater advances in use of sonification to enhance motor learning can be achieved.

Transposing Musical Skill: Sonification of movement as concurrent augmented feedback enhances learning in a bimanual task

Concurrent feedback provided during acquisition can enhance performance of novel tasks. The ‘guidance hypothesis’ predicts that feedback provision leads to dependence and poor performance in its absence. However, appropriately-structured feedback information provided through sound (‘sonification’) may not be subject to this effect. We test this directly using a rhythmic bimanual shape-tracing task in which participants learned to move at a 4:3 timing ratio. Sonification of movement and demonstration was compared to two other learning conditions: (1) sonification of task demonstration alone and (2) completely silent practice (control). Sonification of movement emerged as the most effective form of practice, reaching significantly lower error scores than control. Sonification of solely the demonstration, which was expected to benefit participants by perceptually unifying task requirements, did not lead to better performance than control. Good performance was maintained by participants in the sonification condition in an immediate retention test without feedback, indicating that the use of this feedback can overcome the guidance effect. On a 24-hour retention test, performance had declined and was equal between groups. We argue that this and similar findings in the feedback literature are best explained by an ecological approach to motor skill learning which places available perceptual information at the highest level of importance.

The Hidden benefits of “poster presentation assessment”: Skill acquirement and learning; evaluated from the nursing students perspective

Introduction
This paper reports to an exercise in evaluating poster group work and poster presentation and the extra learning and skill acquisition that this can provide to nursing students, through a creative and stimulating assessment method. Much had been written about the benefits of using posters as an assessment method, yet there appears to be a lack of research that captures the student experience.
Aim
This evaluative study sought to evaluate the student experience by using a triangulation approach to evaluation:
Methodology
All students from the February 2015 nursing intake, were eligible to take part (80 students) of which 71 participated (n=71). The poster group presentations took place at the end of their first phase of year one teaching and the evaluation took place at the end of their first year as undergraduate. Evaluation involved;
1. Quantitative data by questionnaires
2. Qualitative data from focus group discussions
Results
A number of key themes emerged from analysis of the data which captured the “added value” of learning from the process of poster assessment including:
 Professionalism: developing time keeping skills, presenting skills.
 Academic skills: developing literature search, critic and reporting
 Team building and collaboration
Overall 88% agreed that the process furnished them with additional skills and benefits above the actual production of the poster, with 97% agreeing that these additional skills are important skills for a nurse.
Conclusion
These results would suggest that the process of poster development and presentation furnish student nurses with many additional skills that they may not acquire through other types of assessment and are therefore beneficial. The structure of the assessment encourages a self-directed approach so students take control of the goals and purposes of learning. The sequential organization of the assessment guides students in the transition from dependent to self-directed learners.