Training perceptual experts: Feedback, labels, and contrasts.

Are strategies for learning in education effective for learning in applied visual domains, such as fingerprint identification? We compare the effect of practice with immediate corrective feedback (feedback training), generating labels for features of matching and mismatching fingerprints (labels training), and contrasting matching and mismatching fingerprints (contrast training). We benchmark these strategies against a baseline of regular practice discriminating fingerprints. We found that all 3 training protocols-feedback, labels, and contrasts-resulted in a significantly greater ability to discriminate new pairs of prints (independent of response bias) than the baseline training protocol. We also found that feedback and labels training produced significantly lower rates of bias (i.e., learners in these groups were less likely to overcall matches) compared with baseline training. Our results demonstrate 3 different ways to boost expertise with matching prints, and have direct application to training perceptual expertise. (PsycINFO Database Record