ABSTRACT: Reviews 4 interpretations of the manner in which sensory feedback may
be involved in regulation of skilled performance. For the serial chaining (SC)
and closed-loop (CL) mechanisms, response selection is assumed to occur on the
basis of peripheral feedback from preceding correct and incorrect responses, respectively;
for the ideo-motor (IM) and fractional anticipatory goal response (rG-sG) mechanisms,
it is assumed that a response's performance is directed by anticipatory representation
of its own feedback or of feedback from the reaction to a goal to which the response
leads, respectively. It is concluded that: (a) evidence for rG-sG as a mechanism
for specific response selection, as opposed to generalized facilitation or inhibition
of instrumental performance, is lacking; (b) the notion of a mechanism for comparison
of actual feedback with images of desired feedback is not essential for explaining
error-correction performance which is characteristic of CL; (c) limited available
evidence is supportive of a contemporary version of IM; and (d) IM, SC, and CL
can be regarded as serving complementary performance control functions.