Feedback Loop

A feedback loop, in a motor and cognitive skill context, is the cycle by which information about an action's outcome is returned to the performer and shapes the next action. Salmoni, Schmidt, and Walter's (1984) review of knowledge-of-results research in motor learning found that feedback is not simply helpful in proportion to how much of it a learner gets, timing and frequency matter: feedback given after every single attempt can make a learner dependent on it, producing worse retention once the feedback is removed than a learner who received it more sparingly. The loop itself is essential to skill acquisition, but how tightly it is closed changes what gets learned.

Reference: Salmoni, Schmidt & Walter, 1984. The NeuroRank implementation holds the canonical form and scales interference via task-irrelevant stimulus density.

1. Adjusting mid-round strategy after a single lost duel reveals an opponent is peeking a different angle than expected.
2. A tilt spiral, where a failed play produces frustration that degrades the next decision, which produces another failure, tightening the loop in the wrong direction.
3. Recalibrating sensitivity or a crosshair placement habit immediately after a missed flick, rather than waiting until end of match to notice the pattern.

The Tilt module is built directly around a manipulated feedback loop: its baseline, failure, and recovery phases feed each trial's outcome into the next one, and the prevOutcome field on every trial exists specifically to test how a player's subsequent bet and reaction time respond to a preceding success or failure signal.