The role of feedback for sensorimotor decisions under risk

For goal-directed movements like throwing darts or shooting a soccer penalty, the optimal location to aim depends on the endpoint variability of an individual. Currently, there is no consensus whether people can optimize their movement planning based on information about their motor variability. Here, we tested the role of different types of feedback for movement planning under risk. We measured saccades towards a bar that consisted of a reward and a penalty region. Participants either received error-based feedback about their endpoint or reinforcement feedback about the resulting reward. We additionally manipulated the feedback schedule to assess the role of feedback frequency and whether feedback focusses on individual trials or a group of trials. Participants with trial-by-trial reinforcement feedback performed best and had the least endpoint deviation from optimality. Our results are consistent with a slow gradual drift in the participants’ internal aiming location under summary feedback. Feedback focusing on individual trials reduces this drift, thereby enabling consistent movement planning from one trial to the next. Our results therefore suggest that reinforcement feedback about a single movement is most effective to optimize movement planning under risk.