How can people learn advanced motor skills such as front flips and tennis swings without starting from a young age? The answer, following the work of Masters et. al., we believe, is implicitly. Implicit learning is associated with higher retention and knowledge transfer, but that is unable to be explicitly articulated as a set of rules. To achieve implicit learning is difficult, but may be taught using obscured feedback—that is, feedback that does not directly describe the result of an action.
With AUFLIP , we sought to provide auditory feedback to help newcomers learn front flips. We created a wearable system with a simplified model of a front flip that compares a user’s time to peak rotation against their ideal time. As the user approaches their ideal performance, the system begins playing a chord, only completing the chord if the user manages to rotate at their ideal peak time. We tested this system by integrating it into an environment where professional coaches teach novices how to perform front flips; we found preliminary results suggesting that users wearing the device exhibited implicit learning.