Prevention and correction in post-error performance: an ounce of prevention, a pound of cure.

Error detection serves 2 different functions: prevention and cure. Prevention engages post-error slowing to reduce future errors, whereas cure engages processes that correct the error. Thus, prevention predicts post-error slowing, and cure does not. We investigated this distinction in skilled typists in 3 experiments. In Experiment 1, post-error performance was investigated in 800 typists who completed a short continuous typing test where correction was disallowed. In Experiments 2 and 3, post-error performance and post-correction performance were investigated by manipulating whether typists were allowed to correct their mistakes. Across experiments, there was limited evidence that typists used error detection for prevention; typists preferred the cure. After making mistakes, they corrected them and rapidly resumed typing at normal rates. Post-error slowing occurred only when correction was disabled; post-error speeding occurred when correction was enabled. This finding offers support for the novel hypothesis that post-error slowing reflects the inhibition of pre-potent tendencies to correct mistakes. Error-detection processes in general will be better understood by distinguishing between tasks that allow performers to cure their errors through correction rather than reduce their errors through prevention. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.