ORIGINAL PAPER The Differential Effects of Elaborate Feedback and Basic Feedback on Student Performance in a Modified, Personalized System of Instruction Course Jared A. Chase Æ Ramona Houmanfar Published online: 6 August 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract Educators in large-enrollment courses are faced with the challenge of effectively disseminating information to their students to ensure that they learn the content provided. A related issue involves the means by which instructors evaluate student performance. Offering effective forms of performance feedback may be one technique to provide students with additional information to facilitate learning. Accordingly, the purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of elaborate feedback and basic feedback on student performance. Two groups from an introductory psychology course participated in the current study. The Basic Feed- back Group (N = 108) received basic feedback on all quizzes. The Elaborate Feedback Group (N = 102) received elaborate feedback on all quizzes. Response accuracy and learning gain were evaluated between groups. Visual analyses dem- onstrated the relative effectiveness of elaborate feedback on subsequent student performance. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses revealed that elaborate feedback was beneficial in general and particularly for questions that were deter- mined to be difficult by item analyses. Results and implications are discussed in further detail. Keywords Elaborate feedback Á Basic feedback Á Personalized system of instruction (PSI) Á Large-enrollment course Introduction A prevalent concern facing educators is the question of how to effectively disseminate information to their students to ensure that they learn the content presented. A related issue involves the means by which instructors evaluate student J. A. Chase (&) Á R. Houmanfar Department of Psychology/296, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA e-mail: jchase@unr.nevada.edu 123 J Behav Educ (2009) 18:245–265 DOI 10.1007/s10864-009-9089-2