Written AI feedback made students feel more skilled at basketball than a coach's tips

The study

1. 01

   Who took part

   240 university students aged 18 to 24 in a required basketball class, 120 in each group. Anyone who had played on a basketball team or trained in the sport in the last 3 years was left out.

2. 02

   What they did

   Students had two 60-minute classes a week for 8 weeks, each with three rounds of free-throw practice. After each round, one group got an AI note with a strength, a fix, a cue and a next goal. They wrote one line on what they would do, while the other group got a spoken fix and cue from a coach.

3. 03

   What happened

   With AI feedback, students felt more skilled at week 4 and the end, and at week 4 felt more driven from within. Their free throws went in about 7 more times in 100 than the coach group's, and the gain lasted two weeks. Their technique grew more too, but the study tested the whole package, so it can't show if the AI part mattered.

What the study found

1. HelpedMotivation

   Students felt more skilled with AI feedback on one strength, one fix and a next goal than with coach tips.

   • Rule: With an automated digital coachtested
   • Rule: Make it concrete and specifictested
   • Rule: Get feedback on your progressused

   Randomised trial of 240 university students in a basketball class · vs one spoken tip from a coach after each round · they rated themselves

2. HelpedGoals

   The same AI feedback improved free throws and technique more than coach tips, and still did two weeks later.

   • Rule: With an automated digital coachtested
   • Rule: Make it concrete and specifictested
   • Rule: Get feedback on your progressused

   Randomised trial of 240 university students in a basketball class · vs one spoken tip from a coach after each round · they rated themselves

Source