AN EVALUATION OF ECONOMIC AND PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK IN AN INSPECTION TASK WITH EXPLICIT ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES

Feedback has been consistently shown to improve inspection speed and a ccuracy, provided it is given in a timely and appropriate manner. Trad itionally, this feedback has been with regard to speed and accuracy pe rformance. Nevertheless, when there are explicit economic consequences associated with the inspection process, economic feedback is also an alternative. This study compares performance feedback with economic fe edback in a realistic simulation of an aircraft inspection task. Subje cts provided with performance feedback showed overall improvement in s peed and accuracy. Subjects provided with economic feedback not only d emonstrated similar improvement, but also approached economically opti mal trade-offs between speed and accuracy. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B .V.