Knowledge of results is a term in the psychology of learning.p619 A psychology dictionary defines it as feedback of information:
- "(a) to a subject about the correctness of [their] responses; (b) a student about success or failure in mastering material, or (c) a client in psychotherapy about progress".
It describes the situation where a subject gets information which helps them to change behaviour in a desirable way, or to gain understanding. A primitive example is avoiding a behaviour after punishment. An advanced example is the way a human may improve understanding and behaviour after a teacher explains what was wrong with the previous effort.
There are a number of similar terms in psychology, but all of them have some problems.
- KCR: this means "knowledge of correct results", which implies that there is always a specific correct result.
- Operant conditioning and reinforcement: this implies a behaviourist approach using "schedules of reinforcement" to "shape behaviour".
- Feedback: this is a more general term, perhaps too general. It is often used for the way systems adjust to preset limits. The Watt "governor" which controlled steam engines is a classic example.
So, knowledge of results, or sometimes immediate knowledge of results, is a useful term. It can be used for any learning where a student (or any animal) gets information after the action. The information is about how satisfactory the action is.