Error management training is an active training approach. In contrast to traditional error avoidant trainings that provide detailed tasks instructions in order to prevent errors during training, error management training encourages participants to make errors and to learn from them. Although many studies have shown error management training to lead to better performance than error avoidant training, several issues concerning the effectiveness of error management training remain unsolved. The present dissertation compiles three studies that aimed to illuminate the psychological processes underlying the effectiveness of error management training and the conditions that promote or restrict its effectiveness.
Study 1 tested the notion that self-regulatory processes (emotion control and metacognitive activity) mediate the effectiveness of error management training. It further explored whether a new variant of error management training designed to enhance metacognitive activity leads to a performance increment. Fifty-five volunteer students learned a computer program under 1 of 3 conditions: error avoidant training, error management training, or a variant of error management training that included a metacognitive module. As predicted, both forms of error management training lead to better transfer performance than error avoidant training (d=0.75), but the two error management training groups did not differ. Mediation hypotheses were fully supported: Emotion control (assessed with a self-report questionnaire) and metacognitive activity (assessed with a measure derived from verbal protocol analysis) mediated performance differences. These findings highlight the potential of promoting self-regulatory processing during training.
Study 2 compared error management training and error avoidant training, with a focus on interactions between cognitive ability and training condition. It also explicitly distinguished training from transfer performance. Participants were 110 volunteer university students who learned a computer program in 1 of the 2 conditions. As predicted, error avoidant training led to better immediate training performance than error management training, but this effect was reversed for novel transfer tasks. Further, interactions of training and cognitive ability emerged as expected: Cognitive ability predicted training performance in both error management and error avoidant training, but it predicted transfer performance only in the error avoidant training group. This pattern of results is consistent with resource allocation models which suggest that with practice, tasks become less dependent on cognitive ability.
Study 3 meta-analyzed 23 studies (N=1981) that evaluated error management training against alternative trainings. The overall mean effect size was positive (Cohen s d=0.44). As hypothesized, effect sizes tended to be larger for tasks with clear feedback (d=0.57) and were significantly larger for test than for training performance (test performance: d=0.58), for transfer tasks that were dissimilar from training tasks (d=0.80), and when guided trainings were the alternative training (d=0.65). Error management training was also more effective than unguided trainings without error management instructions (d=0.21). To maximize benefits, these moderating factors should be considered when designing error management training.
The present studies demonstrate that integrating errors explicitly into training rather than avoiding them can be a fruitful approach to promote performance on novel transfer tasks. Elements of error management training may be incorporated into existing training forms such as behavior modeling, because learning from errors possibly leads to more flexible and adaptable behavior than practicing only correct behaviors. Future research could also examine whether participants of error management training apply the self-regulatory skills learned in training (emotion control and metacognitive activity) to work tasks that are seemingly unrelated to the particular training content.
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